Meet Dallas Sykes
AUR31116 MEM40119 MEM60112 TAE40116
A bit about Dallas
Born in Narrabri NSW, moved to Queensland when I was 5 lived in Kangaroo Point Brisbane and then settled on a farm west of the town of Clifton just a little country town about 2.5 hours west of Brisbane, grew up working on the farm and helping the neighbours on school holidays to make a few extra dollars looking after cattle and sheep, bailing hay, picking vegetables like pumpkins, watermelons, onions, carrots and potatoes and grain farming of the land. This is where my passion for the automotive industry and all things mechanical started, I loved having to be self-sufficient, when a machine broke down or an implement broke, we just had to fix it ourselves. I learnt from a young age how to fix the farm machinery, motor bikes and any mobile vehicle, welding, cutting, and fabrication were all parts of life on the land.
After finishing High School I pursued a job in the Automotive industry eventually finding my way to the BIG SMOKE (Toowoomba) where I have worked and lived my entre working career, Toowoomba has offered me many opportunities I began my career working for a small local mechanical business servicing, maintaining all forms of cars, motorbikes and trucks, the owner of the business had a passion for vintage vehicles so many of the projects worked on were vehicles made in the 30s-40s-50s this provided some interesting times.
I made the move into the next stage of my career after working from apprentice to manager in the small business, I started at the local Nissan dealership in the service department as a junior Service Advisor, soon finding a passion for providing quality customers service , this led me to a job change a few years later as I was keen to learn more . I started at the Mazda, Subaru Dealership as a Service Advisor working my way up the ranks spending time in Warranty, Workshop control and Parts. I married my wife Suzanne in the early 2000s and life took another change for me, still with a thrust for knowledge I pursued a position in the Heavy Vehicle industry taking on a management role looking after Mack and Volvo Truck Dealership, this role also gave me the opportunity to be involved in the Heavy Engineering and Hydraulics Industry in a sister company allowing me to learn, grow and develop my love of the engineering sector through involvement in the BOOMING Resource Industry west of Toowoomba.
After some years in this exciting BOOMING Resource industry, and after the arrival of my 2 x Sons Jacob and Bailey I needed to find a stable family orientated career, In 2009 I was approached and asked if I would make a move back into the light vehicle industry this role was a Service Manager for the Local Mercedes Benz Car and Van Dealership I spent the next 10 years developing my skills and knowledge, this is where my passion for VISA Skills began. The BOOMING Resource industry had continued to make an impact on the skilled workforce in Toowoomba where many businesses lost 80-100% of their skilled mechanics due to the lour of BIG money and exciting shift work rosters. This created a VERY BIG issue for local businesses at the time I was part of a few automotive and manufacture committees, and we were all looking for a solution as there were just no skilled or qualified mechanics available to fill local positions.
The solution I found was to look aboard, there were many skilled workers looking for work and life opportunities in Australia, but this was NEW, and the process was quiet complex with many different VISA options, through the next few years I employed well over 50 overseas workers offering them stable reliable careers in Australia with the opportunities after 2 years of committed work to become Australian Citizens and have families of their own, these staff members worked across a number of Dealerships that I was responsible for throughout Queensland and New South Wales. I still continued to have traditional Apprentices in my business but had to offer them exciting career progressions to keep them engaged in local employment ,many of these apprentices are now Qualified Mechanics have grown up now having their own families, starting their own business and employing their own apprentices. (The circle of life) The current Service Manager at the Local Mercedes Benz Dealership is one of my apprentices. This is something that I am most proud of and many of them still keep in contact with me.
In 2019 I made a decision to head back to the Heavy Vehicle Industry looking for the next challenge this led me to a Mercedes Benz , Fuso , Freightliner and NEW Holland Ag and Construction Dealership also with a full equipped Panel and Paint shop, this was a challenging time with a lot to learn. It didn’t take long before I was approached by the Mack and Volvo Truck Dealership again to take on a Senior Service Management role looking after aftersales operations, this role allowed me to continue to develop Apprentices in the heavy industry and continue to develop my passion of training, the dealership needed to find a way to engage with its apprentices and offer a strong and attractive future career progression, with the assistance of MTAi and the Volvo Group training platform an in house program was developed where the apprentices could have blended training opportunities learning content directly related to the products they worked on daily. (Mack and Volvo Trucks) This developed into a combined pilot program with MTAi where other local and regional apprentices were given the opportunity to use a local training facility located at Western Truck Group to offer similar opportunities and to give the apprentice more valuable time with the trainer.
I completed my TAE40116 in 2023 and started working in the Training / Assessing industry for the Gimbal Group in July 2023, since then I have had the opportunity to assess many candidates across the Engineering and Automotive industry giving the candidate the opportunity to work and live in Australia, this gives me great satisfaction especially when Australia is in a skilled worker shortage due to the impacts of the COVID Pandemic and strong growth in the manufacturing, transport and resources industries.
What made you join the ACTS Visa Skills Team?
I love being part of a solution to a major Australian workforce shortage issue, having reliable competent skilled workers is extremely important for the continued growth in Australia. Many local business across Australia have been struggling and need reliable skilled workers and without them they face the real possibility of going out of business. Maybe I can be a small part of helping with this.
What aspects of your job presents the greatest challenge for you?
Watching the candidate struggle with the communication barrier of language in a very stressful and emotional time for them, many candidates need to learn multiple languages in the pursuit of employment across the world and English may not be the primary language, so when we think it is hard for us to understand the candidate we need to be mindful that they have needed to learn a whole language and then translate internally from their native language to English to explain a task to us.
What aspects of your job brings you the most satisfaction?
I love the interactions with the candidates and listening to the experiences and knowledge that they have gained in so many different locations across the world in so many different roles. I also love seeing and hearing the passion in the voices of the candidates and the love and respect so many have for their families and the opportunity to work and live in Australia gives them.
Any advice to give to candidates looking at starting the process? Respect the opportunity given to them to work and live here in Australia, be honest when answering the questions and embrace the Australia way of life never forgetting the reasons why they wanted to work and live in Australia.
