Get to know more about Joshua - our first year van technician at Midlands Truck & Van Coventry. Find out what he thinks about kickstarting your career with an apprenticeship course.
- Why did you apply for this apprenticeship?
- Mercedes-Benz is a prestigious company and having the ability to learn the brand whilst working within Midlands Truck & Van seemed a good opportunity for me. Going into passenger car I thought would have been my first choice, but my family also use Mercedes-Benz vans – so this encouraged me to join the scheme, so I can also help work on their vehicles in the future.
- Why choose to be a technician?
- It seems a good trade to learn with a wide variety achievements that can be made. I always knew I could not work in an office job, and I needed something more hands-on.
- What do you want to achieve at the end of your apprenticeship?
- I have already thought about further career progression past the apprenticeship. What other courses that I could potentially do, and different avenues in which I could take my career once I have passed.
- Are you enjoying the hands-on approach to learning?
- I love it. I chose an apprenticeship, as I could not just sit learning something every day in an education setting. I like that its hands on approach, I enjoy getting stuck in, if I am waiting for my mentor or I’ve finished a job early, I will happily pick up a broom or a mop and help clean the workshop. It is also really good to be learning techniques and tips from my mentor and the experienced technicians, my mentor seems to enjoy working on the more complex jobs, such as wiring faults, and by watching him I know in the future when these jobs arise, I will be able to handle them.
- What are your future goals?
- I would be happy to stay within Midlands Truck & Van, I have only been here 6 months so far, but I can already tell that I can learn so much from the business past my apprenticeship. I know that by learning and qualifying with Mercedes-Benz brand, and as technology changes, there’s always new things to learn and adapt, such as the advancement with the electric vehicles we are now seeing in the workshops more and more. In the future, maybe I will be the mentor taking on an apprentice.
James, Joshua's mentor, is a van technician with 29 years experience and has shared his experience of the programme.
- I really enjoy the ideas of apprentices in the workshop, knowing that collectively our knowledge within the team is teaching the next generation of mechanics is rewarding. Hints and tips that I learnt when I first started out are now being passed down. It is really good to see them use initiative as well, I think I’m quite lucky with Joshua, he is really keen and eager to learn which makes the process run smoothly.
The friendships that a formed are good too, it is a rewarding process and at the end, once they have qualified, you can sit back and think, we’ve all helped with that. The apprenticeship course is definitely a success within Midlands Truck & Van.
