Member Article

Harbury garage owner heads to college to gain key mechanic skills

A Harbury garage owner has headed back to college to gain skills to support in the workshop – and has employed one of her course mates in the process.

Becky Coots-Williams owns JCW Motors with her husband Jack and has looked after the administrative side of the business since it was formed.

But the 30-year-old decided she wanted to be able to assist more in the workshop and also build better understanding in order to assist herself with customer enquiries, so she headed to Warwick Trident College to study.

Becky has now completed her full-time Level 2 motor vehicle course and is already able to give a helping hand with servicing, breaks and some repairs. She is set to start on a Level 3 course later this year.

While studying at the college she met Robert Powell, who learned that Rebecca owned a garage in Harbury and started to regularly visit to help out.

After arriving day after day on his bike, Rebecca and Jack decided to offer him a job at the garage – which now employs four people.

JCW Motors opened in May 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic hit but has thrived, is regularly fully-booked and has built a strong base of repeat customers.

Becky said taking the course at Warwick Trident College has supported the garage in being able to cope with high demand.

“Jack and I set up a mobile business a few years ago and since then I had been involved with things like diary management, customer services and social media,” she said.

“We took on the JCW Motors premises last year and with us now having our own workshop I wanted to get a bit more involved, and to have a better understanding of issues when I’m talking to customers.

“I found the course at Warwick Trident College and after speaking with the tutors they were willing to take me on to teach me the basics on the Level 2 course.

“I thought it would be strange being a 30-year-old woman studying on a course with 16-year-olds but it was awesome.

“I’m able to support with some key tasks around the garage now and that’s been really important after the great first year of business we have had.

“I met Rob on the course and he just turned up at the garage one day. He cycled over from Leamington daily, so we asked him to come and work with us. We’ll actually be doing our Level 3 together later in the year!”

Warwick Trident College is part of college group WCG (formerly Warwickshire College Group).

Alastaire Forsyth, lecturer at Warwick Trident College, added: “It’s unusual for a student on our course to already own a garage, that is something that usually comes a few years down the line.

“We have a fantastic community amongst the students on our motor vehicle courses and it’s fantastic that Becky has been able to support Robert with an employment opportunity too.

“Becky is a great example of how anyone can return to college to upskill, something that there is a major push by the Government on currently.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Matt Joyce .