LKQ Academy targets 2025 growth to help address industry skills gap
LKQ Academy will increase its seating capacity to 12,500 in 2025, representing 10% growth year-on-year, as it continues to open new training sites and launch new courses.
The training provider is set to open additional sites in 2025, alongside launching new programs for the modern garage – supporting customers to get ahead of evolving market trends for the late 2020s.
It will also be introducing new virtual reality compatibility to a selection of its online training courses to help technicians learn under-the-hood work anywhere at any time, safely.
LKQ Academy expects ADAS to be a key focus for training in 2025, with plans to support the aftermarket with its professional ADAS theory and calibration courses through the LKQ Academy. The business has equipped all its state-of-the-art sites with the Autel Advanced IA900, offering hands on ADAS and wheel alignment experience to technicians.
It’s growth plans follow a successful 2024. It now has more than 21,000 registered technicians and opened three new sites in Glasgow and Manchester this year, with a flagship site launched at its West Midlands HQ in Tamworth.
The training provider now offers 87 unique courses, with several new programmes introduced in 2024. Its latest training launches include servicing hydrogen vehicles and diagnosing and repairing AdBlue system faults. It also launched an exclusive programme with Varta on battery construction to enhance technicians’.
Lee Chapman, Head of Support & LKQ Academy, said: “The UK car parc continues to evolve and we’re committed to supporting the independent aftermarket to meet its growing needs and to close the industry skills gap. We’ve further increased our UK coverage for the LKQ Academy this year, with the new site at T1 acting as a central hub for operations, to help respond to demand for upskilling.
“ADAS will be a particular focus for us in 2025, with only 2% of technicians – 4,425 individuals** – qualified to service and repair these systems. We’re also working on introducing more high-level courses to the LKQ Academy and VR to our online courses, to help garages stay ahead of the game when it comes to market needs.
“We take our responsibility as a market leader seriously and the last 12 months have been a period of significant growth and investment, that we’re looking to continue into 2025 and beyond. Upskilling plays an important role for garages to prepare for the future and in doing so offer high standards of work and customer service that will help boost growth and profitability.”