When it was announced that three major car manufacturers – Ford, Holden and Toyota – were moving their vehicle production plants off Australian soil, other employment sectors proved capable of filling the void. What’s more, despite this blip, the industry is set to grow substantially over the coming years, providing better opportunities for automotive employment and traineeships.
Earlier this year, CEO of Auto Skills Australia Geoff Gwilym explained that even before these manufacturers announced their leave from Aussie shores, 87 per cent of the automotive sector comprised of retail, servicing, maintenance and repairs. According to a report by news.com.au, each year sees another 400,000 vehicles take to Australia’s roads, meaning that essential maintenance services are seeing a shift in dynamic and a surge in demand.
This information coincides with the latest review of the sector by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC), which this month released its 17th Annual Global CEO Survey of the automotive industry. The sector summary, titled ‘Fit for growth: The automotive industry – Where it’s going and how it plans to get there’, surveyed 87 CEOs on a global level to find a forecast of expectations for the immediate future of the automotive industry.
Automotive employment expected to rise
PwC found that around half (44 per cent) of the business leaders thought the automotive industry will grow in the coming 12 months – a significant increase on last year’s report, when only 16 per cent of CEOs believed the same.
With almost one-third of executives in 2013 believing the industry would decline, compared to only 7 per cent today, there is some real optimism over the health of business and automotive repair employment opportunities in the coming year.
Queensland, is expected to be one of many areas finding opportunities from this positive jobs market.
Apprentices perfectly placed
Few industries are evergreen; most are deciduous entities capable of shedding previous processes to match a changing world. This is the same in the automotive sector, which is also projected to see a large increase in vehicle technology over the next five years.
In its The Car of the Future report, Citi Research forecast the integration of telematics into vehicles to increase by over a third (34 per cent) by 2020. The global automotive industry is also set for a significant 4 per cent growth in the same time frame.
With vehicles growing more technical, it is up to employers in Queensland to develop skilled workers able to meet the demand for technical repair and maintenance. As a result, employers will be keen to hire automotive apprentices to invest in the next generation of skilled workers.
Through training, the automotive industry will have the employees ready to meet the changing world of vehicle retail and servicing.
