Nurturing Young Talent
ATL Automotive Continues Partnership with HEART/Trust NTA for Internship Programme
Nothing beats local talent when it comes to serving our customers and the ATL Automotive Group has continued to uphold its standard by offering employment and training opportunities to students and graduates of local institutions. One of the most notable initiatives for recruiting fresh and new talent has been the continuation of a partnership between the Group’s training department – ATL Academy and the HEART Trust/NTA.
Eight apprentice students were enrolled in the last internship programme held in August and September of 2019 and this year and this year will see 7 more students benefiting from this initiative.
The programme is structured to allow students to be paired with senior technicians across the brands and locations. The previous cohort were spread across the Oxford Road, Hagley Park and Lady Musgrave locations and conducted their work study over a 6-week period with exposure to the dealership processes of each international brand, brand manufacturer tools and techniques.
Two of the students from the last cohort, Ramone Holness and Winston Hall, also took part in the annual Honda Repair-a-Thon event which allowed them to receive hands-on experience with removing and replacing defective air bag units in affected Honda and Acura motor vehicles. They were able to gain more familiarity on these vehicles and invaluable experience while working alongside internationally certified senior technicians.
Winston Hall shared that the programme “was one of the most rewarding, educational and valuable experiences for me in the automotive world. The environment was rich with resources to learn from. The technicians were helpful and instructive. I got to see how a proper workshop runs, we learned proper standards, practices and procedures to follow, when working on motor vehicles. The experiences actually set the standards that I will follow, as a technician going forward. So, I want to say thanks to all the kind folks that made that happen, and please continue”.
After the programme came to a close, the Honda team offered a full time contract to Ramone Holness in January 2020. Ramone worked alongside Master Technician Courtney Hedge and impressed the wider team with the level of professionalism he displayed during his tenure and conducted the tasks that were assigned to him during his period of internship. “My ATL Honda experience was super amazing.” Ramone commented. I learned a lot while working here. I was really comfortable working with the staff, learning and gaining experience in a professional manner. It was the best training experience.”
