Page 26 - Australasian Paint & Panel Jan-Feb 2023

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Industry Interview
PAINT&PANEL
JANUARY / FEBRUARY 2023
WWW.PAINTANDPANEL.COM.AU
I love painting and I think
panel beating – it’s got that art form to it.
LEFT: After various roles at the MTA Jacobs takes over from Paul Unerkov as CEO.
MTA CEO DARRELL JACOBS
DARRELL JACOBS HAS STEPPED UP AS CEO OF MTA SA/NT, SAM STREET TALKED TO HIM ABOUT HIS PLANS FOR THE MEMBER ORGANISATION AND THE NEW ROLE.
MTA SA is the only RTO for paint and panel in the state and has a huge, 30,000m2 training facility.
“How can we excite people into paint and panel? Personally I think it’s one of the most exciting trades in the industry – I love painting and I think panel beat- ing - it’s got that art form to it.”
Jacobs gets that people don’t think paint and panel when they think auto- motive. “So what do we do in schools, how do we work with the government, what do we do on our site? We’re trying to create awareness of opportunities in those trades as well as other paths in au- tomotive,” he said.
“EV transition, skills transition and ac- tually just trying to get a bigger work- force, the whole automotive industry is suffering with right now. There’s no easy answer though.”
Jacob said that MTA is very excited to see what difference the mandated Code of Conduct will make when it comes into effect in South Australia in early 2023.
“The repairers are working hard; there’s a lot of hail damaged cars; there’s a lot of vehicles at the moment in shops and the skills shortage is compounding that.
“So if we can work with the insurance companies and come to a better arrange- ment that we have with them and also solve some of the skills shortages, then I think we’ll have a bit of a happier body repair division.”
J ACOBS HAS OVER 20 YEARS experience in the automotive industry and clearly under- stands the issues facing the
collision repair industry.
“I’ve got a background that ranges from franchising prior to automotive, and then obviously with the OEM (Mitsubi- shi) that I was with for a long time, so I think I bring a lot of experience to it and
a couple of different ideas.” he said. Automotive is in his blood and he grew up around cars. He developed a passion for them from sitting in the back of his dad’s purple Valiant Regal and his interest in the automotive industry
remains strong.
When asked about his plans he said:
“I’ve been here three years now at the MTA and I’ve spent two of those years on the member side of the business. I’ve
been really fortunate to sit with mem- bers from a number of divisions, includ- ing the body repair division, through to the tow truck division and understand not just the members’ businesses but also some of the issues that they face.
“This last year I’ve been sitting on the training side. So I’ve seen the other perspective of the apprentices that come through, getting them jobs and their training and how the curriculum matches with what’s happening in the workplace.
“The skills shortage is such a big issue across Australia, whether you’re driving trucks or in paint and panel or wherev- er. I’m trying to work out how we try and solve a lot of that. It’s not going to be an easy task but we’re doing a lot of ini- tiatives in the paint and panel space in particular with school programs.