Easy2Recruit, the agency helping garages hire overseas talent, has launched ‘Student2Skill’. The innovative initiative is designed to pair international students studying in the UK with garages looking for part-time workers.
These students can undertake up to 20 hours of work per week, obtaining valuable practical skills and potentially vocational qualifications in the process. The businesses gain the opportunity to fill skills gaps with dedicated staff.
Within the automotive sector, the problems of skills shortages remain extremely acute. Easy2Recruit founder Ambi Singh, himself an owner of successful independent garage businesses, struck upon the idea of accessing overseas talent after becoming frustrated with the constant difficulties of finding and retaining skilled technicians.
The student labour pool is significant. The number of overseas university-level students in the UK has been growing for many years, rising from 442,000 in 2014/15 to 680,000 in 2022/23[i].
“We’re aiming to pair mature international students with UK garages for part-time work within the UK automotive sector, focusing on roles like tyre fitting,” said Ambi Singh, CEO of Easy2Recruit. “Many will already have work experience and advanced academic qualifications but are eager to learn trades too and can offer a wealth of skills and capability to the UK workforce.”
Many international students are especially eager to learn new skills and gain employment because their post-study options can be very limited without a job. Employers can potentially apply to extend the duration of employment under a ‘Skilled Worker’ Certificate of Sponsorship (CoS) Visa for up to 5 years through the Home Office. This enables both employers and students to invest in developing careers progressing into full-time vehicle technician roles.
Easy2Recruit launched in June 2023 and has already achieved notable success working with leading automotive businesses keen to access skilled overseas workers. Student2Skill aims to cover a much wider range of sectors in due course.
“We’re starting with automotive but Student2Skill can bring motivated individuals with real skills and experiences into construction, industrial and retail too,” said Ambi. “We want to show garage owners how they can gain committed upwardly mobile employees to help their businesses thrive.”
Garages wanting to find out more about Easy2Recruit’s innovative staffing solutions, including taking on mature students part-time under the new Student2Skill initiative, can visit www.easy2recruit.co.uk and enquire from the website.
[i] https://www.studying-in-uk.org/international-student-statistics-in-uk/