Introducing Cytech to Australia: Training the Trainers
Posted on in Cycles News
After more than two years of discussions, planning and preliminary work, the Cytech bicycle technician training and accreditation scheme is finally getting underway in Australia.
Cytech has been quite rapidly expanding into new countries in recent years, creating a truly international standard for bicycle mechanics. This means that technicians who train under the Cytech program in one country will have a qualification that's recognised in any of the other countries as well as further afield.
Bringing Cytech to Australia has been an initiative of Bicycle Industries Australia (BIA) who have secured federal government funding for the program, and now the actual training is getting underway starting with the UK's most senior and experienced mechanics trainer, Pete Cowling, flying out to Australia to ‘train the trainers'.
Pete arrived on 9th September and will be intensively training three trainers who will then in turn be training mechanics from around Australia in future courses.
"We're undertaking some training and assessment to let them achieve the qualification in a slightly shorter time than would normally be the case, because they've got previous knowledge and experience," Pete explained.
"We're also going through the delivery program so that when they commence teaching, they know how the program is delivered, so that we can maintain the quality of the Cytech program's delivery throughout the world."
Pete has been training mechanics since 1998, starting with an organisation that preceded Cytech.
The first three Australians being trained are Shannon from Victoria who is already both a qualified TAFE trainer and a bike retailer, Phil from Sydney NSW, who is also a TAFE trainer and a long time cyclist and Stuart from Queensland who is a long time bike industry member.
Assuming all three pass, they will be the first Australian accredited Cytech trainers.
If the program takes off as BIA and many in the industry hopes it will, they will need trainers based in all states, so Pete may be going back from the UK next year to train more trainers.
Pete continued, "As far as credibility of the Cytech course is concerned, I've had delegates visit me from Japan, South Korea, Spain, Belgium, Jordan, South Africa, so there's been quite a lot of interest from outside the UK for quite some time."
"In the late 1980's there was a court case in the UK (about a bicycle accident) where a very well-known cycle shop owner was asked what qualifications he had to work on this particular bike. He started saying, ‘Well I've been in the bike industry 45 years...' or whatever and the magistrate replied, ‘I'm not asking you how long you've been working. I want to know what qualifications you've got!' And there weren't any. So the Association of Cycle Traders (ACT) decided that they needed to have a qualification structure that could be delivered to the cycle trade so that if that situation arose again, the dealer could say, ‘Yes, I've got this qualification.'"
"A lot of Councils use the qualification now for when they do their due diligence for cycling events, so it's not just the bike industry that's recognising the qualification. Insurance companies do and lots of independent organisations that run events."
"South Africa has been up and running for two years now. North America and Canada came over at the beginning of August and did the training and assessment with me."
"When we first launched the program I thought we'd run out of mechanics to train in five to six years, but 18 years down the line we've still got as many people queuing up to come through the qualification in the UK as when we first launched it."
"There are other industries being removed from Australia (such as car manufacturing). So having a recognised qualification would be a step forward for people who are facing their industry being lost."
If you would like to find out more about Cytech training courses you can visit the Cytech website here, or to find out more about Cytech in Australia you can contact Peter Bourke of BIA at office@bikeoz.com.au or visit bikeoz.com.au/index.php/employment-and-training.