My motoring inspiration: Barry Williams

A hunger for automotive ignited by his grandfather helped the IMI’s End Point Assessment Manager for England build an incredibly successful career

Who inspired you to pursue a career in automotive?

My grandad was an engineer who worked for his local sawmill in Dorset. During the Second World War, he stayed at home because he built lorries for the mill – the business couldn’t have continued without him. I inherited a load of his tools, and when I was doing my options at school, I did something called Job Wise, where you typed in your skills and interests, and it told you what career you might be good at. It pointed me towards being an agricultural mechanic. I ignored that and became a light vehicle technician.

Once you decided light vehicles was your destiny, how did you go about making it a reality?

I went to my local FE college in Bridgwater and found my own work experience placement. It was at a very independent two-man garage at the back of a petrol station, which was on the road into town, so it was really easy to get to. It seemed like a great starting point. I learnt a lot about the different parts of the industry that you wouldn’t necessarily see in a main dealer. I got the opportunity to work on lots of vehicles, see how it worked, and meet the rest of the independent garage community in Bridgwater. But after 12 months of work experience, it became clear to me that I wasn’t set out for that kind of lifestyle.

How did you change your career direction to something more suited to your skills?

I wrote to my local Peugeot dealer and asked if I could do work experience with them. At the end of the second week, the dealer principal came and offered me an apprenticeship. It was right place, right time. He said that the fact that I’d put myself out there and come in on Saturdays without any pay to gain more experience really helped their decision-making. I started in YTS, doing more technical mechanical work, and was able to engage with the parts and service departments. You could talk to customers and there was a body shop out the back where you could talk to loads of different people. I got to see MOTs taking place and everybody was really open. You asked a question, you’d get an answer back. I began to be able to explore what the automotive industry was really about.

How did you develop your career post-apprenticeship?

I was recognised really quickly as the go-to guy in the workshop to get work done, but I became bored of just another service. It was a luxury to get a cam belt or a clutch, because once you become good at doing something in a dealer setting, you get lots of it because the work is churned out quickly. It then led me to apply to my local college where I thought I would go and become a teacher. At 26, I left the workshop to go to my local college to be a Learning Support Coordinator – a technician in their workshop with a small amount of teaching responsibility, which then progressed into an NVQ Assessor. I did some lecturing then moved to Internal Quality Assurer, then Lead Internal Quality Assurer. I then moved to the IMI as Business Development Manager.

You’ve been with the IMI for 10 years. How varied has your role been at the organisation?

The business development role felt right for me. I had a really good working understanding of IMI products and the education system itself. I thought it would be really good to work through the South West College network and help them to become a success. I’ve been lucky that opportunities have presented themselves and I’ve had the skills to apply. I’m now End Point Assessment Manager for England, managing a team of eight assessors and 58 consultants.

You recently returned to the classroom to take a Level 5 apprenticeship as Departmental Operations Manager. How was it?

I learnt so much from it. It’s changed the way I manage people. It’s changed the way I look at time management. I’m really proud to have done it. It was a lot of work, but I’m proud that I continued that journey of learning and gained the highest qualification that I’ve had now.

How would you sell the automotive sector to a new generation of talent?

The breadth of role you can take in the automotive industry is so much more than what you perceive from the television. If you look at a dealer, there are probably 30 different job roles that take place, and those roles exist throughout the automotive industry, just in bigger and wider places.

Barry Williams is the IMI’s End Point Assessment Manager for England

To feature in our next edition, email james.scoltock@thinkpublishing.co.uk

This is an edited extract from IMI's new MotorPro magazine, received free as part of IMI membership.