Technical Apprentice
Auto Windscreens

Dan M and David Bagnall

00.04 Dave: Hi, my name’s Dave Bagnall, I’m a technical officer for Auto Windscreens.

00.07 Dan: Hi, I’m Dan M and I’m Dave’s apprentice. My average day is I go to a salvage yard, I choose a car to work with, I strip that car down, I take photos, put them into a document, into an instruction booklet so people know how to strip that car down.

00.26 Dave: I’m Dan’s mentor, yeah. So I do manage his work and what he’s doing on a day to day basis and anything that Dan does I normally proofread before it goes, out but Dan’s into his third year now and he’s just won Apprenticeship of the Year for the whole glass industry, not just Auto Windscreens. So he has proven himself already but I keep him on his toes. I really did love school, I really enjoyed school and what I did want to become, like, a vet or something around working with animals.

00.53 Dan: I was 15 when I left school. People were trying to pressure me into staying on, going to university but I decided it wasn’t for me. It’s not what I wanted to do.

01.05 Dave: My brother went to university before me and I saw a lot of debt and things and thought I want to work rather than be in debt for the rest of my life.

01.12 Dan: Well while I was at school I had a part time job working in a MOT test centre, so I’ve always been interested in cars, I wanted to work with cars.

01.19 Dave: My Dad was always working on cars, motorbikes so I got involved with helping him at weekends and things and that were where it started. And I found this apprenticeship so I did the apprenticeship and then as soon as I finished the apprenticeship I knew that I wanted to get back into, or come back into the training department and help pass on my knowledge to other people.

01.38 Dan: My Mum and Dad just said, “You do what you want to do.” They were really relaxed about it and just said, If you want to leave, leave. If you want to stay on, stay on.”

01.45 Dave: The main advice my Dad said to me when I was looking to leave school, was to look for a career and not just a job. And then he’d be happy which is why I went for an apprenticeship programme.

01.56 Dan: Being named Apprentice of the Year is something that’s obviously really boosted my CV a bit. It’s really [cored 2.03] it. It shows that all the hard work everybody around me has put in as well as myself and the opportunities that I’ve been given.

02.11 Dave: I would’ve said getting the position of technical officer was the high point of my career until I got Dan as an apprentice and I’ve watched him progress through the two years, and then for Dan to get the Apprenticeship of the Year, I would say that’s my highlight, definitely.

02.27 Dan: I think there’s been quite a few people that have inspired me but possibly the biggest person is Dave. Just the way that he goes about things, what he’s achieved, how he started off as I am now and where he’s got to, and he’s been here, he knows what it’s like so he can give me the best advice of how to move on.

02.43 Dave: I like to play guitar obviously that’s why I’ve got a guitar sat the side of me. I love camping, canoeing, climbing, anything outdoors, I really like doing outdoor pursuits. We run a scout group as a family so I’m into scouting. But it’s basically anything outdoors I’ll do.

03.00 Dan: I’m a very keen sportsman. I play sports, I watch sports ranging from football, rugby to darts, snooker, pool.

03.09 Dave: He’s the flukiest person at pool you’ve ever seen.

03.12 Dan: Pool’s always a good one, I can wind people up with that.

03.16 Dave: I have changed the way I think about life in a few ways. A few personal events that have happened in my life through family, illnesses and deaths and things like that. They do make you think you’re here once, you’ve got to make it happen. It’s you that makes it happen, it’s not luck. You’ve got to go out there, you’ve got to do it. And that’s the approach I take. If I want to do something I do it.

03.35 Dan: I think if I could do anything at all in the world, it would be to travel around, see different cultures, look at how other people live, look at the opportunities that they have and possibly pick up positives from each of them and improve myself as a person.

03.48 Dave: If I could do anything in the world I’d go and work in an orangutan park in Borneo, because I’ve visited one and it’s amazing, it looks really good. That would make me happy.