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Success stories
Life in the Fast Lane! - Thanks to Q.E.T.C. & McLaren
In 2002 Antonio was involved in an accident and was seriously injured. He decided he wanted to retrain and had heard about the Queen Elizabeth’s Training College. He went to see Maria, the DEA at Brighton Jobcentre, and she helped him apply to the college for the Vehicle Refinishing course. This course would give Antonio the skills to become a car paint sprayer. Antonio said, “I love cars, and I wanted to learn a new trade. I picked it up quite easily. The fact that I did real work was very helpful, rather than sitting in a classroom. I got on so well with my instructor, Dave Carr, and thanks to him, I did really well on the course”. He is pictured here (left) on his course at the College.
Then things got even better! Antonio was offered 2 weeks work experience as part of his College training programme at the McLaren Technology Centre in Woking. Antonio said, “I was a bit overwhelmed at first as it’s such an unusual and futuristic building. Also, I worried about working with such experienced people, but I needn’t have done, it went so well”.
McLaren were very pleased with Antonio’s work and he applied for a job there as a Paint Shop Technician, working on the Mercedes Benz SLR McLaren , a “super sports-car” costing £320,000. He was successful and has been working there for over a year now, and is thoroughly enjoying it, working in the prepping and priming area, mainly on the shells. Antonio is so impressed by the workshop as it’s so clean and has all the best equipment, and he’s very excited to be working on such exclusive and prestigious cars, all hand-built there at Woking. He’s pictured here (right) with a finished car about to go out from the production line.
Antonio is extremely committed to his job and to McLaren. He lives in Brighton and travels 120 miles a day to and from work, leaving at 5.15 in the morning! He said to me, “It’s worth it though, and if it wasn’t for the College and for the instructor, I wouldn’t be here now !”
