School of Thought seeking industry support

School of Thought has announced new funding initiatives as it aims to build on the success it’s had in connecting the industry to new talent since it was established in 2019.

Established by Dave Reece, School of Thought is trying to bridge the skills gap by promoting the sector to colleges and other places of education, with volunteer ambassadors highlighting to potential career opportunities to young people.

Since the start of this term, ambassadors have attended 39 events and connected with over 2,000 students, while School of Thought is also attempting to tap into the commercial vehicle sector by connecting with associations such as the VBRA. It has also had discussions with The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport and the Federation of Small Businesses.

Dave Reece said: “Everyone is fishing in the same talent pool and making sure we are pro-actively engaging with young people of all ages and abilities is the most important challenge the industry faces in the next decade. As an industry we can’t simply expect the problem to go away or fix itself.

“We have had fantastic support so far from our volunteer ambassadors, people who have a vision of the future and support our philosophy. We now need even more which will see our programme move to another level. We understand the problems the pandemic has created for everyone and have operated on a mixture of self-funding and support funding for various events and projects from incredible companies, which has been greatly appreciated through these difficult times.

“To this end and with our future plans we have created a membership package to suit everyone from small independent businesses to corporate partners. We have even set up a crowdfunding page for anyone who would like to donate as much or as little as they can afford. Every little will help us to influence the talent of the future to join this great industry.

“This is a genuine appeal to the whole of the automotive industry to help us to help you. The advancement of technology is not an insurmountable problem for the industry, the lack of young people coming into the industry is and not acting now is not an option.”

Anyone interested in supporting should email [email protected] or [email protected]