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Auto Tech Group: Backing the next generation of apprentices 🚗🔧📄 · Money News

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  S1: I got work to do.
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  S2: Now on money news. Let's talk business. Brought to you
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  S2: by NAB your partner for every stage of your business.
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  S2: NAB more than money.
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  S3: Oh, we love our friends at NAB and we thank
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  S3: them for bringing us the Let's Talk Business segment every
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  S3: week in 2026. Now, running any sort of business is
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  S3: no easy feat in 2026, for all the reasons we've
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  S3: discussed on the program tonight. But a trade business is
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  S3: also an extra level of complexity because the cost of
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  S3: doing business has been skyrocketing and finding good apprentices. And
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  S3: that is 16, 17 year olds that are straight from school.
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  S3: They might have left in year ten or 11 or 12,
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  S3: and they're keen to learn and be committed to something
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  S3: for a number of years is very, very difficult. I
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  S3: know this because every second one of my friends is
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  S3: a chippy or a Sparky, and they tell me these
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  S3: stories all the time. And yet there's a great story
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  S3: that we're going to bring you tonight with the auto
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  S3: tech group, who have been fixing cars across Melbourne for
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  S3: 28 years. They operate three workshops across the city and
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  S3: they're still growing. And Matt Webb is the owner of
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  S3: Auto Tech Group. He's on the line for us tonight. G'day, Matt.
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  S4: G'day, James. Thanks for having me, mate.
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  S3: I really appreciate you coming on. 28 years in the trade.
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  S3: Three workshops across Melbourne, soon to be four, apparently. How
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  S3: did the business get to where it is today? Where
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  S3: did it all start for you?
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  S4: Uh, a long time ago, 28 years ago. So it
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  S4: started off with, um, myself and, and one person that
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  S4: resigned the day before I was to open. Wow. So
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  S4: it was a bit of an interesting start. And then
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  S4: we just sort of grew organically with our, with our
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  S4: people internally for, oh, for just year on year. Um,
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  S4: we took over our second site, uh, about 3 or
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  S4: 4 years after our first one. And then, um, built
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  S4: a new workshop, rolled the two into one and then, um,
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  S4: started expanding around 2007 into our second site. Um, and
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  S4: then 2023, we actually took over two more sites. So
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  S4: we've got four now. Wow. And we're about we're about
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  S4: to open a new state of the art site, um,
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  S4: in Glen Iris quite close to one of our other
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  S4: sites and we'll roll that in.
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  S3: So that's amazing.
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  S4: Short story of.
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  S3: It. And it's exciting for you as well. But do
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  S3: you ever look at all the costs and all the
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  S3: increased costs and all the government regulations? And if you're
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  S3: in Melbourne, you most probably dealing with land tax, but
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  S3: it's an issue in every state. Victoria's got particularly difficult
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  S3: issues with their tax settings, but at every level three
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  S3: levels of government you're paying tax. There's regulation, there's red
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  S3: tape you've got to go through when you want to expand.
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  S3: Do you ever look at all that and go, God,
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  S3: this is just too hard.
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  S4: Uh, nearly. Nearly. But we've got to love for it.
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  S4: So we, we just keep going for it. Um, with
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  S4: our latest, um, building that we're, we're about to open,
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  S4: it took longer to get the permit than to do
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  S4: the modifications to the building once we got it through.
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  S3: So unbelievable.
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  S4: That just sort of shows you where we're at in
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  S4: Victoria unfortunately.
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  S3: Yep.
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  S4: Um, it is in a bit of a state, but
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  S4: we love what we do. We love having our, you know,
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  S4: our apprentices come through and, um, having them for a
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  S4: long period of time and, and, you know, now having
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  S4: them as part of our group, it's, um, that's still
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  S4: better than, still better than giving up. So yeah.
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  S3: Where's that balance? Before we talk about your young workers
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  S3: and the apprentices, where's the balance when you see these
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  S3: costs go up? And today the big story relates to
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  S3: the minimum wage, which obviously washes through to all the
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  S3: different awards. I think there's about 120 different awards across
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  S3: the country. But then you've got rent, you've got energy bills,
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  S3: you've got your own costs, you've got fuel. Um, how
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  S3: do you get that balance? Right. So you don't sort
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  S3: of price yourself and scare off customers, but also make
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  S3: sure you can take home something to your family.
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  S4: Yeah. It's getting tighter. Um, it's getting tighter. Um, in
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  S4: the automotive space, very few would be on the award,
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  S4: but most, most workshops would be paying well above the award.
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  S4: So that that award increase hasn't affected us quite as much,
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  S4: you know, insurance power compliance is really starting to add
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  S4: some pressure. Um, you've just got to stay on top
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  S4: of it. You've just got to keep measuring it, um,
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  S4: and be right across your, your business operation. Just make
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  S4: sure that it's not, it's not getting away quicker than you,
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  S4: you can either grow or, or manage it.
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  S3: So in relation to young workers, I'd just be keen
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  S3: to know because I hear from people in different industries,
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  S3: both on trades and also in hospitality, that say it's
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  S3: often hard to find a young local Aussie kid that's
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  S3: willing to become a first year apprentice. What's your experience
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  S3: in that space?
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  S4: Again, it's getting harder. Um, losing the the tech schools
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  S4: years ago was the start of the decline, I suppose. Um,
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  S4: but having the new Victorian pathway certificate, the VPC program,
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  S4: um that's actually is helping us. So they, we, they're
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  S4: a school based apprentice where they can come to us
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  S4: for one day a week in year 11, two days
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  S4: a week in year 12. And they get a really
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  S4: good taste of the industry where you get to spend
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  S4: some time with them, see if they're the right fit
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  S4: for our business. So we go down that path. We
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  S4: go to the TAFE colleges. There's a certificate to in automotive,
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  S4: which is a 12 week short course that a lot
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  S4: of TAFE will run, where we're really involved with Box
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  S4: Hill TAFE, and they have like a speed dating process
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  S4: where they'll finish their 12 week program, you'll get a
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  S4: number of employers turn up and you get three minutes
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  S4: with each person that has done the 12 week program.
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  S4: And so you get to interview them. So if you're
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  S4: if you're waiting for them to walk in your door,
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  S4: it doesn't happen. But if you get out there and
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  S4: you get engaged either in the community, the schools or
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  S4: TAFE colleges, we are still having a pretty good, um,
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  S4: pretty good run with getting the right fit for our business. So, um,
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  S4: you've just got to work harder at it. That's sort
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  S4: of what it comes down to. The one of the
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  S4: things going against us is we've got a government that um, supports, uh,
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  S4: young apprentices going into the construction space. So they get
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  S4: they get a huge grant to get started. Um, I'm
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  S4: part of the, our Automotive Chamber of Commerce, one of
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  S4: the couple of the committees on there. And we are
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  S4: pushing constantly to try and get some of that funding
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  S4: into the automotive space, and they continually push back on it.
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  S3: Okay. So so how lucrative is it for an apprentice
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  S3: in construction rather than in automotive? What what what's on
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  S3: offer in full?
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  S4: Uh, $20,000 they get as an allowance to start, which
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  S4: is has zero interest, and they have to pay back
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  S4: 16000 like a like a HECS debt at the end.
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  S3: Yep.
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  S4: Um, but it gets them started. So it gets them
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  S4: either a car and some tools. But, but, but our
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  S4: apprentices still need cars and tools. And, and I would
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  S4: argue that our apprentices may even need more tools than
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  S4: some of the union based you know.
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  S3: Of course.
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  S4: Apprentices. Yeah. And they still need cars to get to work.
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  S4: You know, we're in in a south east of Melbourne
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  S4: And um we need our um, people to travel further.
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  S4: So they need, they've got the same need for a
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  S4: car and tools as, as any other industry. But we are,
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  S4: we are left behind with the government.
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  S3: Well, and then when you consider that automotive trades remain
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  S3: on the national skills shortage, um with some estimates saying
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  S3: we'll be short by 40,000 technicians. So something needs to
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  S3: be done in that space. And look, you can understand
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  S3: construction given that we are in a housing crisis, but
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  S3: you can't, um, you know, you can't make it too
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  S3: easy for someone to prioritise one trade over the other. Hey, Matt,
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  S3: that was very interesting and I really appreciate your time tonight.
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  S3: Thanks for joining us on Let's Talk Business.
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  S4: Thanks for having me.
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  S3: Uh, that's Matt Webb, the owner of Auto Tech Group.
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  S3: And they've got a number of stores in Melbourne over
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  S3: the past 28 years. And if you're keen to get
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  S3: involved in that space as an apprentice, you know where
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  S3: to find him.
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  S2: You've been listening to Let's Talk Business. Thanks to nab
• 8:06
  S2: whatever role you need us to play, we're your partner
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  S2: for every stage of business. NAB more than money.