Glasgow was proud host of the SMTA Annual Dinner, which celebrates the Scottish automotive retail industry with the IMI Skillmiles Alba Awards. The final award of the evening was the Special Achievement award that went to Ryan McKie and Lee McManus, both of whom took a good opportunity and turned it into a great career.

Ryan, aged 25 and from pollok, and Lee, aged 22 from Govan, both found themselves under qualified, unemployed and running out of time to get into work. Having both left school with minimum qualifications and a lack of direction the pair were finding it harder and harder to get jobs.

Then they heard about the Prince’s Trust five-week course called “Get into Cars,” which was ran by GTG Training on behalf of Arnold Clark, Ryan and Lee saw this as a good opportunity and joined up in 2008. Once the course was over they had both impressed Arnold Clark so much that they offered them Apprenticeships.

The pair worked exceptionally hard as they knew this was a great opportunity for them. In fact they worked so hard they finished their training a full year early and that is why they received the Special Achievement Award last night.

Ryan said: “I’m deaf in one ear but I insisted on sitting at the back with the cool kids which didn’t help my education. I looked at the army but due to being deaf in one ear it wasn’t an option. I spent a few years unemployed and when the course came up I decided to go for it. I’ll have to admit my girlfriend forced me into it at the time, but look at me now receiving an award. Age and qualifications were against both of us but we were given a chance. It proves that people like us can do it. We are now both fully qualified Technicians for Arnold Clark.”

Lee said: “I have a great sense of pride and I can’t believe I’m getting an award for doing a job that I’m passionate about. Thanks to Arnold Clark for giving us two young lads a chance. In school I was just always in trouble trying to be cool. I left at 15 and I wasn’t interested in working I was just interested in drinking. Then the older I got the less chance of work there seemed to be. Even at the job centre younger people were getting the jobs.

“I have always liked cars so when the ‘Get into Cars’ course came up I knew that was my chance. We have both qualified one-year early. We were keen to learn but never had the chance so we grabbed it with both hands and went for it. It has really paid off.”

Sandy Burgess, IMI Lead National Manager said: “These two young men have come from challenging backgrounds, they have adopted a strong work ethic and they are now reaping the benefits of that. They are a credit to themselves, their families, their employer and to the automotive industry. They recogonised that they had an opportunity and they went for it. They saw the industry as a career opportunity and I’m sure they will go a long way.

“The IMI is working hard to help young people with their careers and to welcome them into the automotive retail industry. We recently launched the Accelerate scheme with assistance from Ruth Badger of Apprentice fame. We also have Autocity in place which offers free careers advice and information on available vacancies. The automotive retail industry offers a career not just a job, it is an industry young people can go a long way in.”

 

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