LKQ Academy is opening 10 new training centres across the UK as part of a large investment to upskill garage technicians and support staff.
The training provider will spend £500,000 on the expansion, with two sites having already opened this year, in Glasgow and at its revamped Tamworth T1 base. The new centres will extend the company’s reach across the UK.
Alongside its expansion, LKQ Academy has also recruited five new trainers as part of the expansion so far, alongside signing an exclusive contract with industry legend Andy Savva. Andy will deliver training on how garages and workshops can help to improve their operations, customer service and profitability.
LKQ is now set to open a new site in Manchester from April this year. The training provider will also reveal plans for a further three sites set for the south of England later in 2024, with four more centres opening in 2025.
The 10 new sites will add to LKQ Academy’s existing centres in Sunderland and Bristol, alongside 26 external sites, creating a total capacity of 11,000 seats on 80 different courses.
Range of studies through LKQ Academy
The new sites will use state of the art technology including virtual reality, to create engaging and impactful learning experiences for garage and bodyshop professionals to upskill.
Courses range from delivering the skills needed to service electric vehicles, to helping support staff to become more adept at handling customers’ technical queries. Last year the LKQ Academy launched a course designed to help bodyshops take action on sustainability, which sits alongside a range of course designed specifically for bodyshop technicians.
Alongside its in-person training, the LKQ Academy provides hundreds of e-learning courses, with new training soon to launch on topics from servicing hydrogen vehicles to identifying and fixing AdBlue system faults.
“We are creating true UK wide coverage for the LKQ Academy, making our industry-leading in-person training accessible to most of the country’s professionals in a two-hour drive or less,” commented Lee Chapman, head of support, LKQ Academy.
“UK expansion is essential to our mission to close the skills gap in the industry, and to help the independent aftermarket keep pace with the dealers, while adapting to major changes from digitalisation and meeting ever changing consumer demands for high standards of customer service, while adapting to work with smarter cleaner and greener vehicles.
“We invest all proceeds from the LKQ Academy back into our training, which means all of our are courses part-funded to provide great value for customers. It is the right thing to do to help the aftermarket ecosystem to succeed. If garages and bodyshops have the right skills to prosper, LKQ prospers with them.”
Discussing his partnership with LKQ Academy, Andy Savva added: “It is exciting to be joining forces with the LKQ Academy. Its dedication to providing high-quality training, represented by its latest expansion drive, mirrors my own commitment to supporting the growth and success of aftermarket businesses.
“I am delighted to be delivering my training courses to their customers. Together, we look forward to equipping professionals with the tools and knowledge they need to thrive.”
All LKQ Academy courses are fully accredited by the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI). Garages and workshops can complete a free skills assessment, providing a comprehensive overview of where and how they can develop their skills. Courses can be accessed individually, with individual memberships starting from £999, with workshop memberships from £1,299.
Online training includes MOT CPD courses, with LKQ Academy advising garages to book on by 27 March 2024 to avoid missing the DVSA deadline to complete training by the end of March. More than 1,000 MOT testers are removed from the DVSA register every year by not completing the mandatory CPD on time.
