How IMI TechSafe Centre of Excellence, Lincoln College, is accelerating learning

The first Further Education College in the UK to offer specific qualifications for Electric Vehicles (EVs) and Advanced Driver Assistance Systems (ADAS), Lincoln College also trains teaching staff and trainers from institutions and businesses around the country.

MotoPro sits down with its Learning and Skills Lead Peter Jackson to find out how its investing in the future to give apprentices and other learners the best possible set of skills.

MotorPro: It must have been good to know that the hard work you've put into Lincoln College is paying off, proven by the IMI TechSafe Centre of Excellence award?

Absolutely. It really does mean something. When somebody casually mentioned a formal opening of the Newark workshop, getting Steve [Nash, IMI CEO] the town council and others over, was really good. Then for Steve, just to spring that one at the end it was quite overwhelming to be quite honest, it was very touching, very good. We have done a hell of a lot with the IMI so it's nice.

You’ve invested heavily in getting all the facilities prepped, how critical is that for the training you provide?

We've paid an awful lot of money for these training rigs and you look at the faces of the technicians that are coming in and its wow factor. It really is. We've got everything the tooling is specific, the PPE, the VP, everything.

How important is having that TechSafe excellence mark against the college, both in terms of how you project yourself, but also in terms of how people coming in to learn, see you?

I think it's massive because it's the nearest thing that we have to actual technician licensing and it's the nearest thing we'll ever have.

We have to be careful because we're not talking about putting your fingers across a 12-volt battery anymore, and we're not talking about a car that you drive. We are talking about a car that potentially can drive itself.

The maintenance of those vehicles and the mindset of those drivers is huge, and that's what TechSafe is in a nutshell.

We're talking about ADAS, we're talking about autonomous vehicles, talking about cybersecurity, hydrogen, communicating vehicles, vehicle-to-grid, vehicle-to-X. That needs a massive, massive communication uplift to make sure secondary school careers advisors are aware of that, the colleges are aware of that, and that the wider public are too. TechSafe is huge and it needs to be bigger.

Now you've become a TechSafe Centre of Excellence, how do you maintain the momentum?

By picking up on stories and making links. Our students have new technology sessions and the ones who have their GCSEs need to maintain a certain amount of hours a year. We put on two one-and-a-half-hour sessions aiming at electric vehicles, aiming at ADAS and that will soon stretch into hydrogen technology.

We've already had an event here last November where Tom Denton, Hayley Pells and Andy Crook came to talk to our students, our apprentices and the local employers about how hydrogen.

Do you see a divide between the young and old in terms of the acceptance of new technologies and new working approaches?

Around here there's three garage owners that I love to bits. They're young, competitively, and they are innovative and they've got a real want to learn more and do more. They do a lot of CPD. On the other hand, there's probably the majority of aftermarket garages around the country that are beginning to say, “Actually, I've gone as far as I want to go, I'm going to sell me garage, I'm going to think about retiring.” I know that's happening for a fact.

But there are some brilliant, brilliant garages out there and they urgently want technicians. There are some big companies throwing money at technology and resources, and they urgently need young people to come in and work with them.

Find out more about how Lincoln College became an IMI TechSafe Centre of Excellence and what it takes