As part of the Australian Auto Aftermarket Excellence Awards, mycar was awarded with the Excellence in Employee Engagement and Wellbeing Award

The Excellence in Employee Engagement and Wellbeing Award recognises excellence in engaging with employees, demonstrating new approaches to finding good employees or supporting the recruitment of new employees into our industry by embracing diversity in recruitment, or initiating innovative worker wellness or safety programs
A number of entries were received for consideration by the judging panel, but ultimately it was mycar which took out the prize for its School Based Apprenticeships and National Work Experience Program.
The Australian Automotive Aftermarket Association sends its congratulations to mycar and to entrants Pedders Suspension and Brakes, AutoKeepers, CoolDrive Auto Parts, REDARC Electronics and Ryco Group Ltd for their submissions.

mycar, School Based Apprenticeships and National Work Experience Program
With over 1,400 employees nationally, mycar is one of the largest employers in the automotive service and repair industry and it says it is also the largest single employer of Apprentice Automotive Technicians in Australia.
mycar says as the industry continues to grow and with the COVID restraints of the past two years, it found itself in a greater skills shortage and forced to look outside the box in order to keep its talent pipeline growing.
Its first initiative was the launch of School Based Apprenticeships (SBA) in conjunction with education providers including CathWest Innovation College. SBA allow senior high school students to commence an apprenticeship while at school. School based apprentices work part-time and undertake the first stage of their apprenticeship training before the end of the HSC year.
Both the on-the-job and off-the-job training undertaken by school based apprentices can contribute to their HSC. School based apprentices will commence full-time employment as a second year apprentice from January after their HSC, providing that they have successfully completed both their on-the-job and off-the-job training program during their senior high school years.
A school-based apprenticeship combines paid work, training, school as well as an industry recognised national qualification credit towards the HSC. They are a great way to establish the career whilst you are completing your HSC.
mycar launched its SBA program in New South Wales and has since expanded it to include Victoria and Queensland. Since launching it has received enquiries from more than 50 schools. mycar says it has been so pleased by the success of this program and how well it has been received by participants, that it plans to open the initiative to other states in the coming year.
Since implementing the program in 2020, one School Based Apprentice has successfully commenced his apprenticeship with mycar and the company has significantly expanded the program, with 22 SBAs currently supported – a number which equates to six percent of all apprentices working nationally with mycar, and which mycar expects to grow year on year.
mycar’s second initiative is a national work experience program. The purpose of work experience is to provide students with a high-level understanding of what an Apprentice Technician at mycar is all about.
During work experience a variety of activities will be completed, which will enable the work experience participant to understand what is involved in being a team member at mycar.

It is designed to cover key tasks that will make them feel welcomed, comfortable and safe in their new environment. The work experience will consist of workshop and office-based experiences and will be always supervised by a qualified Technician.
The work experience initiative benefits candidates by encouraging students to get a taste of their career, allowing them an inside look at what a career with mycar involves. They can determine whether their love of tinkering with cars, solving problems and taking pride in quality work can progress to the next level. This helps them to make an informed decision about an automotive career.
To support these initiatives, mycar conducted an internal review of its team member roles to determine which aspects of the recruitment process and the apprentice role they found interesting and identified different ways of attracting potential mycar team members.
This identified both short- and long-term strategies to improve mycar’s employer brand and become an employer of choice in the automotive industry. Short term, it updated its recruitment collateral including Seek ads, imagery and the mycar career pathway.
Long term, mycar has developed career videos for each position featuring mycar team members, which are now live on its Seek ads to show candidates what mycar is all about and why they should join. mycar has also updated its careers page on its website, to improve candidate traffic and attract more potential team members to the business.
To appeal to students who are a younger demographic, mycar also launched a social media campaign aimed at recruiting new mycar team members and previous mycar team members.
To enable mycar to engage directly with students and schools, mycar also partnered with Explore Careers to gain exposure to over 2800 schools and 1.8 million students. This provided mycar with the ability to communicate our recruitment message directly to students.

To learn more about mycar, visit www.mycar.com.au