Ambitious by nature, auto electrician Nathan Gore-Brown rose to the top in his chosen trade, from there to a university degree and on to become a sustainability leader in Australia’s automotive industry. The 2002 BBM Global Industry Scholarship for Trade, Auto Electrical was his opportunity to step onto the global stage:

Receiving the BBM Global Industry Scholarship in 2000 was a real accelerator in my career and life. It not only provided the means and incentive to travel to the UK and Europe but also the opportunity to put myself out there and push boundaries.

I was sure that I wanted to do some work experience with Jaguar Cars following my grandfather’s passion decades earlier. While I had no contacts at the famous sports car maker this didn’t stop me; it brought out my creative side. Before the internet was what it is today, I got through to the main switchboard in Coventry via the international directory service and found my way to the apprentice training department. This is where it all began.

The “push” that came from in me, coupled with the opportunity from BBM lit the flame for my career and my life. From that point the 2-week leadership training and the 3 weeks I spent with Jaguar were the most formative of my life at that time. I grew up quickly.

The scholarship set up an opportunity to make the rare career step up from trade level to university graduate and engineer. Without it I would have likely remained in Australia and owned a mechanical workshop.

The experience of the scholarship and what it enabled has provided the foundation for my career since. It also shaped me, my love of travel and different cultures. It fuelled my inquisitive nature. It ultimately led to me meeting my wife and having our two wonderful children.

I now work in a sustainability focus company and role which is a more recent evolution of my career. At the time of the award I was really interested in high performance cars and the tech they included. It is only in the last 3 years that sustainability has become important to me, potentially driven by having children and being exposed to some of the opposite behaviour. I felt compelled to apply my experience and interest into sustainable transport and energy as I cannot see a future in the same way we have done it for the last century.

The onset of electric vehicles of all kinds is going to bring the greatest change to the transport industry since putting the horses out to pasture. This shift will change all aspects of the industry; design and engineering, sales and servicing. Entering an automotive repair apprenticeship now is very different to mine over 20 years ago. The number of technicians required and the number of highly skilled diagnostic roles are likely to reduce due to lower servicing requirements, less complex mechanical systems and connected cars self-diagnosing.

Despite this we will, in Australia, have the need to repair vehicles for over 30 years to come. It will be important for new apprentices to be tech savvy before entering their training to get a head start. Completing Year 12 and attempting subjects like physics will be important in my mind.

With industry changing so rapidly and with so much more to come with autonomous vehicles the next generation of BBM automotive scholars need to position themselves in placements where they are exposed to these future technologies. Bringing that knowledge back to Australia is likely to benefit the country and the scholar in the future.