In a first for the Irish aftermarket, Hella Ireland have opened a new industry training centre at their premises in Santry, Dublin. The Hella Training Academy (HTA) will offer not only technical courses but also business skills courses that are aimed at helping independent repairers improve their skills and raise their overall standards.All courses will be one day duration to commence with and will be delivered by recognised industry experts.

Commenting  on the reasons for establishing the HTA, Johannes Schade, Aftermarket Managing Director at Hella Ireland said, “It is quite clear to me since I arrived in Ireland that independent garages don’t get the support they should. They have nowhere to go to improve their skills. I have seen this before in both Denmark, Norway and Poland, where we as Nordic Forum are in the meantime one of the biggest industry education bodies.” Johannes adds “Fortunately we have great resources in the Nordic Forum so this will benefit Irish garages but we must encourage them to attend the trainings.“

The Hella Training Academy (HTA) already have an active website www.hta.ie and here all information on available courses, course fees, requirements and how to book courses is listed. The website also has useful links to the technical websites of the many Hella Ireland parts suppliers including the very useful Hella TechWorld website and access to all these sites is free.
Currently the HTA has three approved trainers;

• Ken Johnson who works with Hella Ireland, is a fully qualified technician and approved trainer for Hella Gutmann equipment and also for F-Gas training.
• Mark Richardson, is a motor industry professional and widely recognised as Irelands leading communication and sales training expert. Mark will deliver non-technical courses (soft skills) that will focus on how to present yourself and deliver class leading customer services.
• Domnic Brooks is a former Managing Director and Financial Controller of a multi-franchise motor retailer with an annual turnover of €65 million. Dominic’s coaching provides expert advice in workshop management, service KPI’s as well as parts management, from the basic housekeeping requirements to the control of inventory and margins.

Johannes is very excited with the development of the HTA, he says “Educating our independent mechanics is one of the major pillars in our Tools, Parts and Service strategy. From my point of view, we as an industry have the responsibility to provide training to the Independent Aftermarket to help mechanics repair all the cars of tomorrow. That was the idea of starting the Hella Training Academy and bringing together the best trainers of the industry under one roof. HTA should be the one stop solution for education for a mechanic in Ireland”.

For more information on the Hella Training Academy (HTA) visit the website www.hta.ie  or contact Hella Ireland on 01-862-0000.