bodyshop Live! awards get technical
A key part of the bodyshop Live! 2020 awards initiative will be six individual prizes for apprentices and senior technicians.
The Powered by Vizion – bodyshop Remit Technician and Apprentice Awards comprise three distinct award categories – MET (mechanical, electrical and trim), paint and panel.
The bodyshop Live! awards are all about promoting and recognising excellence and outstanding achievement across the entire collision repair sector, and thereby hope to inspire the next generation to pursue a career in our industry.
That’s why bodyshop has once again teamed up with Vizion Network and Remit Group, which are both industry leading organisations focused on developing, implementing and promoting skills and training programmes. Vizion’s network of over 800 repair centres countrywide gives it a unique vantage point from which to understand, shape and continuously improve standards and levels of service.
Remit Group has an enviable reputation as an Ofsted-accredited provider of training and apprenticeship programmes, and as such is hosting the practical assessments designed to put apprentice and senior technician nominees through their paces with a series of challenging tasks, once they have completed a questionnaire and online testing.
Sue Pittock, Remit Group CEO, said: “We are delighted to sponsor the prestigious bodyshop Live! awards again this year and once again look forward to welcoming apprentices and experienced technicians to the Remit Automotive Academy to complete the practical assessments.
“Remit Group is incredibly proud of its heritage within the automotive sector and our work with employer partners to support the training and development of technicians of today and for the future. Last year, the competition attracted a breadth of entrants from a range of businesses across the country, who each produced an incredibly high standard of work.
“These awards represent a great opportunity to shine a light on the skills and talent within the UK accident repair industry, and we hope to inspire even more apprentices and qualified technicians to take part in 2020,” Pittock added.
Nominations have begun to pour in for all the bodyshop Live! 2020 awards and 30 under 30: rising stars initiative. There are now just two months left to submit your candidates ahead of the 31 March deadline, using our online forms.
As well as the six apprentice and technician categories, you can nominate yourself or put forward a colleague, peer or business for awards for customer experience or claims services, technology and innovation, bodyshop manager, VDA, VM or educator, as well as bodyshops of all types and sizes.
As we strive to maintain an open and transparent independent process for the awards, each edition of bodyshop magazine until May 2020 will introduce three members of the 15-person judging panel. This month, it’s the turn of jurors Darren Bedford, Angela Henry and Simon Smith.
bodyshop awards jurors 4-to-6
4. Darren Bedford
Motor engineer manager | Covéa Insurance
26 years in the collision repair industry as an insurance underwriter. Prior to this worked in the engineering sector. Joined jury to help celebrate the industry’s commitment to customer service through maintaining the highest repair standards.
5. Angela Henry
Director of customer service | M&M Fix Auto Stoke-on-Trent
20 years at M&M in Stoke since joining as business development manager in 2000. Prior to that went straight into insurance from school, working for a local broker. Henry is now also president of the Stoke Insurance Institute.
6. Simon Smith
Chief operating officer | Solus Accident Repair Centres
25 years in automotive, starting out as a breakdown call handler and, later, customer services manager, operations manager and head of integration and claims services at the RAC. Later joined Aviva as head of motor claims and head of service delivery; before joining Solus ARC as operations director and chief operating officer.
Click to read the latest issue of bodyshop magazine in full.
