Currys Motors

Devizes

Nick Hale

Owner

Daniel Sheppard didn’t just change wheels and head gaskets during his apprenticeship at a Devizes garage. He also changed his life.

Now a qualified motor vehicle technician and MoT tester, Daniel is bringing nothing but credit to his employer Nick Hale, owner of Currys Motors.

But as Daniel explains, it wasn’t always that way.

“When I left school I had a few problems and went down the wrong path,” he says. “But I got into the apprenticeship with everybody behind me, got my head down and got on with it.

“The apprenticeship and working here has changed me and made me grow up faster.”

Nick Hale agrees.

“We had a few problems with Daniel in the early days, but then he got himself into gear and sorted himself out.

“We took him on with some reluctance but it worked out very well.”

Just how well it worked out became apparent when Daniel won the much-coveted title of Apprentice of the Year at Wiltshire College.

“He’s come on in leaps and bounds,” says Mr Hale. “I’m very proud of him and he is a nice, polite young lad.

“If someone comes on to the forecourt with a problem, I know I can trust him to go out there and help them.”

Daniel apart, Mr Hale says he’s a great believer in the benefits of apprenticeships – and he says the flexibility of Wiltshire College has made all the difference.

“We need to bring on young people in the motor trade,” he says. “It’s getting more and more technical all the time. It needs a lot of technical skill to repair motor vehicles and you can’t do it on the side of the road any more.

“When my older lads leave, the apprentices will take over. They bring fresh blood into the business.

“You can train them your own way and coax them around to your way of thinking.”

Daniel, who served a three-year Advanced Apprenticeship in Vehicle Maintenance, urges other young people to consider apprenticeships, too.

“It seemed a good idea to me because I’d be learning a trade and working at the same time,” he says.

Wiltshire College