Automotive Business Magazine – Q2 2026 – Digital edition - Magazine - Page 37
OPINION
RE TA I L
The death of the
technician
→ Chris Dalton is CEO at jobmate
W
hen I was 16, my
parents nagged at me
to either go to college or
get an apprenticeship.
University was for the
rich. Not being one for
academia, I thought
an apprenticeship was
the way to go, and I
loved cars – particularly motorbikes – so
engineering was my future.
I secured an interview with the then
East Kent Road Car Company, which
also interviewed my parents, as they had
to guarantee that I would stay for four
years and attend college.
The apprenticeship set me up for
life, giving me skills and knowledge
in road transport that have been the
backbone of my career to date. I have
been a member of the (IRTE) Institute
of Road Transport Engineers for over 40
years and a member of the Worshipful
Company of Carmen for almost as long.
The apprenticeship taught me
discipline, respect, and the importance of
attendance – if you didn’t go to college
or pass exams, you were sacked. It also
taught me life.
My career quickly progressed into
management, with responsibilities for
fleet operations not just in the UK, but
globally. Now my own company develops
software for the road transport industry.
Winding road
The apprenticeship route began to
change 25 to 30 years ago, when it
became unfashionable to pursue a fouryear apprenticeship.
In parallel, in the early 2000s the status
of a skilled person was losing credibility
as Governments pushed for academic
qualifications over skills and began
withdrawing subsidies for employers
offering apprenticeships. Yet today, we
have every other person with a degree in
some dubious subject, all excited that it
will give them an advantage over others
in an interview. Academic education
is theory, and apprenticeship is work
experience.
Today, the vehicle apprenticeship
has changed so much that what was
a commitment and a life plan is now
often a year-to-year plan. Training has
changed dramatically, and so has the
industry, and diagnostics themselves.
Apprenticeships are no longer given
the status they once held. Colleges have
become financial institutions rather
than training bodies, commitments
to attaining have been lowered, and
technology has replaced skills. The
technician of the future may never
actually dismantle an engine or even
appreciate the engineering design. If it
has a problem, plug it into a computer,
and it will be diagnosed and a potential
fix provided. Electric vehicles (EVs) have
turned engineering into electric motors
and computers with batteries that
you just replace in time, much to the
detriment of the world.
Today, engineering is completely
different, and the apprentice engineer
is now an electronics engineer with
knowledge of unit replacement.
The impact of these changes on
society has, in my view, been largely
ignored. Skilled people were proud of
their training, the skills they learned from
their peers, and how they passed those
skills down to the next generation of
technicians. It was a way of life and a
career to be proud of.
The technician of the future is digitally
focused, and without doubt, AI-driven.
They will not actually have a skill, as the
computer plugged in will diagnose the
issue, and they will just reset or replace a
unit or a board.
The technology is fantastic, but we are
losing the human element, the pride of
being a fully skilled, apprentice-served
technician, to being the slave of AI. Is
this the death of the skilled apprentice or
the rise of the robotic technician?
Q2 2026 AUTOMOTIVE BUSINESS
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