Toyota joining Supercars will ‘naturally attract’ more apprentices to plug skills shortage, says exec

A senior Toyota Australia executive has said he believes the company entering into the Supercars Championship will provide a “natural attraction” to boost apprentice numbers in the auto industry.

There is currently a shortage of almost 40,000 qualified technicians in the automotive industry, with the problem only set to get worse with the growing number of electric vehicles that require specialist qualifications.

Speaking to media, including Drive, at the announcement that Toyota will compete in the Supercars Championship with a GR Supra – the top category of Australian touring-car racing – from 2026, Vice President for Sales and Marketing Sean Hanley said the move would help drive interest in apprenticeships.

“I think the whole notion of Toyota being involved in Supercars has an incredibly strong alignment to our dealerships,” said Hanley.

“We have a 260-strong Toyota dealer network around the country, and right now the greatest struggle we have – surprisingly or unsurprisingly – is attracting technicians to our dealerships.

“These people are the doctors of the auto industry, and it's quite a specialised field to be able to say that we are involved with the pinnacle racing event in Australia. To be able to say that we've got GR racing – we'll have a natural attraction we think for young male and female apprentices to join our Toyota dealerships.”

According to Mr Hanley, once Toyota enters Supercars more young people could be interested in a career in the auto sector.

“I think that we start to build our credentials solidly in a practical way [and people start] to say ‘wow, GR is Gazoo Racing, they are racing in Australia, we can watch 'em on the weekend,” he said.

“Whilst we don't have a V8 in the showroom, that is true, we have the Supra in the showroom and they can start to resonate with it. So it becomes an aligned cultural fit for us.”

Mr Hanley’s remarks come as the the sector faces major shortages of essential jobs, such as motor mechanics – with many voices arguing the industry needs to be fighting harder for such roles to be included on the skilled migration list and to get existing technicians unskilled to deal with electric vehicles.

At present, there is no nationally-consistent training available for the more than 70,000 automotive technicians working in Australia to learn how to look after electric vehicles. 

Earlier this year, Matthew Hobbs, CEO of the Motors Trades Association of Australia (MTAA), said more needs to be done to get the existing technicians upskilled, more apprentices, and increased numbers of qualified workers from overseas. 

“As the Government looks to accelerate the uptake of EVs and hybrids and more fuel-efficient cars through its new fuel-efficiency standard, the industry is working to ensure that we have the people with the right skills who can make sure that consumers can always get their cars fixed,” he previously told Drive.

Back in May, the Federal Government made a U-turn on the strict criteria apprentice mechanics needed to meet to work on electric vehicles following mounting pressure from the car industry.

As of 1 July 2024, under the New Energy Apprenticeships Program, prospective auto apprentices will be given $10,000 each to join up based on three criteria: the workshop they are employed at works on electric vehicles, it has the tools to do so, and someone there is already trained in how to deal with them. 

Previously the bar set for an apprentice to access the $10,000 was extremely high because the Government had decreed that 80 per cent of the cars the business worked on had to be electric – an almost impossible level to meet when uptake of such technology in Australia is still relatively low.