At this year’s Celebrating Enterprise Awards, the title of IOEE Enterprising Learning Provider was bestowed upon Ignition Auto Training, a unique social enterprise that equips some of the country’s most marginalised learners with valuable car mechanic skills and renewed self-belief. We caught up with David Brazer, the man behind Ignition Auto Training, to find out the secret to its success.

Despite having no background in mechanics himself and with a grant of just £30,000, in 2014 David Brazer started Ignition Auto Training. In just two years this pioneering social enterprise is thought to have saved local services around £224,000 and has moved some 30 ex-offenders and other vulnerable learners into employment.

David himself has had a varied, interesting career trajectory. In his time, he’s worked as a factory worker an NHS employee, private investigator, and even a Hypnotherapist. However, it is as founder and managing director of two ambitious social enterprises helping disadvantaged people find employment that he has really found his niche. David explains how he came into this line of work:

“I had a job working for a government project supporting disabled people into work. I started as an advisor and worked my way up to become Operations Manager quite quickly. I felt that I had found my passion.”

Having discovered work he found truly rewarding, in 2008 David decided to set up Citadel Associates (SY) Ltd – his first social enterprise, which he continues to run in tandem with Ignition Auto Training. Citadel has a broad remit, as David explains:

“We specialise in helping society’s most vulnerable people into training and employment. Such as disabled, ex-offenders, people with mental health issues, people with drug and alcohol issues, black and ethnic minorities – anyone who doesn’t have the advantage of playing on a level playing field.”

It was through his work with Citadel’s clients that David noticed a major flaw in the system. Some of those he was trying to help were being offered qualifications that were, in isolation, no help in the struggle back to work.

“I noticed that people were coming back to me from a training company we’d contracted with saying ‘I’ve been on the CSCS Card course; I’m qualified to work on a building site now.’ But of course they weren’t because the CSCS Card is only a Health & Safety certificate – not a trade.”

David felt it was unfair to put people through the CSCS qualification when they had no solid marketable skills in bricklaying, electrics or plumbing that would make them attractive to building site employers. He put some serious thought into what his clients really needed to get into work. The answer was skills, qualifications, real work experience and references – all the elements of a solid CV. Along with general employability skills such as confidence, timekeeping, teamwork etc. The next step was to work out how he could equip them with such things and the answer was a citadel sister social enterprise - Ignition Auto Training. David says:

“The only way to do it was to set up a proper working business with a training side that would support people through qualifications but would simultaneously provide them with a lot more.”

David recruited a very experienced mechanic who also had experience of the welfare to work sector. His own role is that of managing director so day-to-day he oversees funding bids and contracts, and liaises with the probation service and other referring bodies. Profit generated by Ignition Auto Trading is ploughed back
into the enterprise and used to buy vital work equipment for the men and women learning the mechanic’s trade. Those using the service represent a wide cross-section – the youngest is just 14 and has been excluded from school, the oldest is a 61 year old lady. David is keen to point out that Ignition Auto Training’s remit is not to simply produce ever more individuals with car mechanic’s training. It is, he says, far more nuanced than that:

“It’s not about churning out mechanics – that’s just a process that we use to support people. The people we help end up in all sorts of jobs. It’s about giving them soft employability skills and new confidence. They feel better about themselves, it’s about building their self-efficacy.”

Speaking to David, it’s obvious that he loves what he does. Equipping people with the seeds of confidence and capability that will allow them to transform their own lives is clearly very rewarding:

“A guy came in last week who’d been through the service. He said “Dave! I‘ve got a girlfriend and I’ve got a job and I’ve got a car!’ It was brilliant to see him buzzing. I said ‘You know if you lost your job tomorrow you’d be able to get yourself another one.’ He said ‘Yeah, no doubt.’”

So, how does David feel about being nominated for a winning the Enterprising Learning Provider award?

“I was surprised but it was great. It’s lovely to know you’ve been nominated and it’s great when you win because the guys who come in here don’t see a future for themselves and when I tell them that actually I wasn’t born with a silver spoon and I’ve done this through hard work it inspires them to work hard themselves.”

Those accessing Ignition Auto Training’s offer arrive via probation services, local drug and alcohol services or the job centre. A few even self-refer. Depending on the level of learning individual students attain, they walk away at the end of their time with the social enterprise with an Institute of Motor Industry award, certificate or diploma.

An inspirational, optimistic and determined individual, David and his team were thrilled to have their hard work recognised by the IOEE:

“This journey establishing Ignition has been such an incredible rollercoaster of extreme highs and lows but seeing the positive changes in the service users’ lives makes it worthwhile. To be amongst such esteemed company is an honour and to win is a privilege we will endeavour to live up to. It isn’t easy but our mantra is ‘Anyone can do easy.’”

If you’d like to learn more about the work David does at Citadel or Ignition Auto Training, you can visit www.casyltd.co.uk or www.ignition.org.uk.