Subaru Melbourne is the importer and distributor of Subaru all-wheel drive vehicles in Melbourne, and consists of a network of dealerships including the innovative Subaru Interactive @ Docklands.
Subaru Melbourne is one of the real success stories of group training. The company has been hiring AGA apprentices exclusively for 7 years (since Subaru Melbourne started) and has successfully used our apprenticeship services to grow the business from one location into five major dealerships and eight service outlets, employing more than 260 staff.
Today, Subaru provides employment and training for more than 40 apprentice automotive technicians, spare parts interpreters and business trainees. As one of our most prominent host employers, AGA apprentices know that a job with Subaru is not just a temporary placement, but the start of a great career.
For Greg Baines, General Manager of Subaru Melbourne, the main reason for going with AGA was the flexibility of providing training in-house. Subaru already had an extensive training program for its technicians, which was built around the Subaru product. The challenge for AGA was to develop a model of training for apprentices in the workplace which would complement their other training with Subaru.
“Previously in my career I have used group training companies, but never as flexible as AGA.” says Greg. “A lot of people don’t want to use group training companies because they feel like they are paying hire rates for something they could do themselves, but if it is a larger business like ours they usually employ their own apprentice trainer to monitor the apprentices. We don’t have an apprentice trainer. Rather than employ a trainer, I would rather have a full time trainer from AGA going out to all our sites and working with the apprentices.”
The other major benefit from Greg’s perspective was the capacity to easily recruit skilled people into his business as it continued to grow. As each new Subaru outlet was preparing to open, Greg has contacted Keith Barfett, his AGA field officer, to handle the selection and placement of apprentices.
“We set up each workshop so that it is not all the apprentices in together but a mix of apprentices and technicians and map all this from the outset so that the apprentices aren’t left to work things out for themselves. Once a place is ready to get up and running, I can pick up the phone to Keith and say ‘in two months I’m going to need another parts interpreter or technician’ and he’ll go out from there and take care of the rest. We look for the right attitude in our apprentices, and Keith knows exactly the type of person we are after.”
The success of this employment model speaks for itself! Not only do Subaru retain AGA apprentices after their qualification, but in a recent internal survey they found that 72% of these apprentices were still with Subaru 6 years after completing their apprenticeship! Some of these ex-apprentices had moved from being technicians into sales, parts and service advisory roles. In Greg’s words, “some of the AGA apprentices are among the best skilled people at all our sites.”
Subaru Melbourne
99 Lorimer Street
Docklands
1300 SUBARU
