Surrey and West Sussex-based independent garage group CCM has welcomed a technician from Bangladesh with the support of Easy2Recruit, as it aims to tackle the growing skills shortage.
Mohammed Yonus became part of the CCM team at the beginning of August. The technician joined the company directly from a BMW dealership in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), where he had worked for 15 years. He is now based in CCM’s Ewhurst depot, one of three outlets the company operates across the border area of the two counties.
CCM worked closely with Easy2Recruit to source their new mechanic, and the recruiter’s offering provided CCM with an answer to an ever-growing problem.
“Like a lot of garages, we are struggling to recruit technicians,” commented CCM Operations Director Tina Drayson. “We spoke to Easy2Recruit founder Ambi Singh at length after meeting him at Mechanex Sandown last November, did our research, and we decided that we had nothing to lose by trying this route.”
Help from Easy2Recruit
The first step in the process was getting the sponsorship licence. “The team at Easy2Recruit sent a list of everything needed,” said Drayson, “such as the company registration number, VAT number, PAYE number, Companies House details, organisational structure etc. We then applied for the Home Office sponsorship online.
“Once we had that, Easy2Recruit started sending through candidate videos based on what we told them we were looking for. From six, we whittled it down to two who we wanted to speak with. Following a Zoom interview with Mohammed, we told Easy2Recruit we wanted to go ahead.
“Once Mohammed accepted the offer, CCM was able to assign a certificate of sponsorship (COS) for him, which took about a week. He could then hand in his notice in the UAE. “Easy2Recruit collected Mohammed from the airport and sourced him somewhere to live,” said Drayson. “We haven’t had to do anything.”
Skills abroad
As well as her position at CCM, Drayson is also the head of the garage section at the Independent Automotive Aftermarket Federation (IAAF), and she is more than aware of the ongoing skills shortage afflicting the workshop sector.
“We know that there is a generation gap, where people did not come into the trade. As an industry we find ourselves in a situation where we have got older technicians looking to retire, and very young apprentices that we are now managing to get into the system, but not much in-between.”
This situation is not reflected everywhere, however. “If you go and look at candidates overseas,” said Drayson, “there is a very high number of technicians with the right skills-set, but a much lower demand for their services than we have. Why would businesses facing staffing gaps in the UK not be going down this route?”
The support provided by Easy2Recruit right through the process has been crucial: “They’ve been fantastic. They are always at the end of the phone. Any problems I have had they have sorted out. I could not have asked for more.”
While Easy2Recruit have been supporting CCM, Drayson and the team are now helping their new colleague to settle in: “I have checked in with him every day. This has been a huge upheaval for him, so the least we can do is go out of our way to make him feel welcome and put him at ease.
“Mohammed comes to us direct from a BMW dealership in the UAE, so we are assigning all the BMWs we get to him, and he seems to be well on top of things.”
With their first overseas technician in the bag, CCM is now looking to settle Mohammed into the business and then see what happens. “When we applied for the sponsor license, we initially applied for two work visas,” said Drayson. “It just made sense to do this, so we have always got the option there if we want to take on another.”
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