Car wrapping is becoming an increasingly popular way for enthusiasts to personalise and customise their vehicles. And, like spray painting, when it’s done by a skilled practitioner, wrapping can result in personalised designs, vibrant colours, and high-quality finishes that can be quite stunning.
However, wrapping is not only about unique and jaw-dropping aesthetics on any single, individual car. Wrapping materials are used for fleet graphics too, adorning all manner of commercial vehicles, and can also provide a protective shield, preserving a car’s original paintwork from the wear and tear of daily driving.
One of the vehicle-wrapping sector’s biggest players is Avery Dennison – a global materials science and manufacturing company known for its adhesive technologies, labelling, and graphics materials. The company’s car wrap products include a wide variety of films offering different finishes – such as gloss, matte, satin, and metallic – as well as textured wraps and specialty films that mimic carbon fibre or brushed metals. It also supplies material with air-release technology, which helps eliminate
bubbles during application.
For those with a bit of knowledge about wrapping, the image of someone using a heat gun to adhere the wrap material to a vehicle panel’s surface may be vaguely familiar thanks to an abundance of YouTube videos on the subject. Avery Dennison certainly manufactures that type of material, but it also produces wrap materials that can be placed, adjusted, removed, and placed again with no heat applied at all. Now that is clever stuff.
The wrapping sector is one that is predicted to expand, with reports suggesting significant growth over the next few years.
This is due in part to the interest in personalisation and customisation, but also because of fleet vehicle wrapping and using vehicles as mobile adverts. Knowing how to wrap is a skill worth having and cultivating, and last month saw a group of seven students attend a week-long introductory wrapping course developed by Avery Dennison.
Those students were brought together by MTA Queensland and its Workforce Solutions team through the Opening Doors to the Automotive Industry program, which sees MTA Queensland work with partners to develop pathways to employment for non-traditional cohorts and prepare them to work in the automotive industry.
The aim of the introductory course was to impart to the students an understanding of the wrapping process and enough skills that immediate entry-level positions within the sector can be attainable.
Developed by Vaughan Philip, Avery Dennison’s Technical Services Manager, the course focused primarily on fleet wrapping – advertising branding rather than changing the colour of a vehicle – and was delivered by Vaughan and Technical Services Specialist Todd Hapgood at the company’s purpose-built Training and Innovation Centre in Brisbane.
While there was plenty of hands-on, practical training involved in the course, the fundamentals regarding tools, film and material types, printing graphics, and material selection were also covered. Even the business side of wrapping was considered with, amongst others, presentations delivered on how to quote, picking the right products for the job, working out install times, and understanding warranties and more.
To wrap things up, the students were introduced to some of Avery Dennison’s customers on the last day of the course as the focus swung from training to finding potential employers and jobs in the sector.
Talking to Motor Trader as the course neared its completion, Vaughan said it had been a successful inaugural program – one that could both provide a sector looking for installers with suitably trained workers while also providing another avenue and potential career pathway for people interested in working in the automotive industry.
“The idea with this course was to take people from outside of the industry that had no experience with signage, films or any of the equipment at all, and give them everything they need to know in that one-week period to be able to go into the workforce,” said Vaughan.
“… There’s a lot going on in the course. A lot to learn. They’re picking it up really well. After day one, we had them applying graphics to cars, and now we’ve spent a couple of days of just making sure the quality is very high . . . We’re working on some of the finer details and I would say, at this level right now, they’re probably capable enough to go into the workforce and start wrapping cars. We’re going to spend the next couple of days just making sure that their skill levels are very high.”
For Harper Atwal, one fo the students attending the course, the opportunity to experience what was involved in an automotive-related sector offered a new career option was one he appreciated and enjoyed immensely.
“I found out about this course through my job service provider, and then I went to MTAQ for the introduction day, which was really good. I liked that and I didn’t want to let the opportunity go because I really like working with cars,” he said.
“The course has been really fun … I have watched a few videos on wrapping in the past and thought I’d enjoy it,” added Harper. “I really enjoy working with cars – I did car detailing before this – and wrapping is sort of the next step to detailing . . . I really hope to get a job doing car wrapping in the future because I really enjoy it.”
For MTA Queensland, this course, the collaboration with Avery Dennison, and the meet-and-greet with potential employers highlights how stakeholder partnerships are crucial in tackling workforce and skills challenges within the automotive industry.
“Partnering with Avery Dennison to provide young people with the opportunity to learn new skills and be exposed to the workings, technology, and business of the vehicle wrapping sector is just the sort of program and engagement that MTA Queensland and the Workforce Solutions team aims to foster and promote,” said Bob Grierson, Industry Workforce Mentor with MTA Queensland. “The students loved learning the skills needed to be able to work in the sector, and they will receive support from us to find jobs and pursue that career should they wish to do so.
“Avery Dennison, like other major companies involved with the automotive industry, realise how important it is to encourage and support the next generation who will continue to advance and grow the industry. We look forward to working with their team on future courses and programs, while also building relationships with other companies to provide similar pathways for those looking to join the automotive industry.”
The Opening Doors to the Automotive Industry program is funded through the Workforce Connect Fund, powered by the Queensland Government’s Good people. Good jobs: Queensland Workforce Strategy 2022-2032.
Source: Motor Trader e-Magazine (November 2024)
26 November 2024