Staff Profile – Gordon Graham

Technician and MOT tester Gordon Graham is very much at home in our workshop – in fact he is really quite fond of it! In this months staff profile, we give you some insight in to what makes him tick.

This workshop is one of the best I have been in,” he says. “Everything is well set up, it’s warm – and I have an apprentice to assist me which helps a lot.”

It also helps that Graham is very much at home around cars – and our 1000m2 workshop has plenty of those….

The 45-year-old from Alveley, near Bridgnorth, has worked for David Dexters for just over two years and spends much of his time with gear-boxes, clutches and suspensions as well as working on general servicing and repairs.

“I have always worked on cars,” he adds. “When I was about 12 I did vehicle studies at school in Newcastle and I was a mechanical engineer in the cadets – I would teach the other students.

“I have tried other things but this is what I know, and like, best. I used to run an Audi garage and I have worked at Ford, VW and Inchcape in the past.”

And as Gordon became interested in vehicles at quite a young age, and always wanted to go into the motoring industry, he has a little claim to fame…..

“I was actually one of the first school leavers to take part in the Youth Training Scheme in the 80s,” he says.

The Youth Training Scheme (YTS) was the name of the on-the-job training course for school leavers aged 16 and 17, first outlined in 1980 and brought into operation in 1983 by the government of Margaret Thatcher.

It was later renamed Youth Training and now, much later down the line, Gordon has his own youth trainee in the form of an apprentice!

We wonder how the training has changed in the last 30 years…….we will have to have a chat with them and find out!

Pop back next month for our next staff profile.