Former student of year returns to Warwickshire college as mentor after 40 years

A former student of the year has returned to his roots nearly 40 years after graduating from college.

Dave Evans was named Motor Vehicle Student of the Year at Mid-Warwickshire College, now Royal Leamington Spa College, in 1981.

Now a Chartered Engineer, he has taken up a role as a learning mentor for students at Warwick Trident College, which is part of the same college group WCG (formerly Warwickshire College Group) and one of the group’s centres for motor vehicle courses.

After qualifying as a Renault technician through the college, he went on to earn a degree in engineering and worked for companies including Volvo Trucks, Saracen Cycles and Land Rover.

Dave later studied journalism at the University of Warwick and spent 11 years working as a research journalist for consumer champion ‘Which?’ magazine.

Now he will be passing his expertise onto students with aspirations of working in the motor industry as part of his new mentor role.

Dave said: “I’ve never found academic learning easy. I’ve always looked back on my apprenticeship, including my time at the college, as the foundation for my subsequent career.

“I know where the youngsters with motor industry aspirations are coming from. When I left school in ’77, I had precious little in the way of qualifications.

"That training set me along a path I couldn’t have imagined.

“My early career taught me, as long as you have the desire, the passion and determination, it’s always possible to change career course. I had progressed from vehicle technician to Chartered Mechanical Engineer.

“I later studied journalism at the University of Warwick, opening the door to another very happy 11-year career at consumer champion at Which? Magazine.

"I used my motor vehicle and engineering experience for all sorts, from undercover investigations to tyre testing, crash-testing child car seats to representing consumers on the Technical Working Group of Euro NCAP.”

Re-joining Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) in 2012, Dave delivered the ‘Design for Service’ attributes for the Land Rover Discovery Sport model, before moving on to manage a team investigating government agency enquiries about the safety and legality of JLR products around the world.

He added: “For three years, I delivered the workshop procedures, owner hand book and the design of special service tools. I also managed the ‘cost of ownership’, including serviceability, repair costs and ‘design for low-speed-crash’, which determines the insurance costs.

”In the later years, I investigated claims about JLR vehicles from around the world.

"Many were potentially very serious and we rarely had first-hand access to the vehicles, so it tested our abilities to gather and evaluate evidence, seek out proof of design integrity and provide convincing responses.

“These days I share my time between my learning mentor duties, projects I pick up as a freelance writer and an entrepreneurial new-start business project I’m involved in.”

Prospective students interested in studying Motor Vehicle at Warwick Trident College can attend a virtual open event from home on November 12 from 5.30pm to 8pm.

To find out more go to: www.wcg.ac.uk