Connecting automotive industry professionals and businesses for a stronger workforce

In our April Member Spotlight, Mechanic.com.au Founder and CEO, Ryan Davis, explains how AUSMASA membership provides the organisation with a national forum, to share insights from its community of auto industry professionals, and to shape responses to industry skills shortages.

Tell us about your organisation. How do you support skills in mining and/or automotive?

Mechanic.com.au is a national platform built around one of Australia’s largest independent automotive trade communities, connecting over 20,000 workshop owners, technicians, and industry professionals.

That community is the foundation of the business. It operates as a real-time layer across the industry, where technicians and workshop owners share knowledge, solve problems, and support each other daily. This constant exchange strengthens capability at a grassroots level and lifts the standard of the industry nationally.

From this foundation, we’ve built a broader platform that connects what has historically been a fragmented automotive ecosystem, linking workshops, suppliers, motorists, and emerging talent into a single, connected environment. Our consumer booking network supports workshops in attracting and converting customers, but more importantly, contributes to a larger system designed to support long-term industry growth and sustainability.

Our work in skills and workforce development is led through GearUP Auto Careers, an industry-led initiative designed to address one of the sector’s most critical challenges, the growing skills shortage. At its core, this is not just a supply issue, it is a perception issue. The industry continues to be viewed through a narrow lens, with limited awareness of the breadth of career pathways, the pace of technological change, and the opportunity for broader participation, including increased female representation.

GearUP is designed to shift that narrative at scale. Through national careers expos, digital content, and employer engagement, we showcase the full spectrum of modern automotive careers and create direct pathways into the industry. At the same time, we support workshops to present as Employers of Choice, ensuring the industry is not only attracting talent, but retaining it.

This positions Mechanic.com.au as more than a platform. We operate as connective infrastructure, linking education, industry, and employment pathways, and enabling a more coordinated, scalable approach to workforce development across the automotive sector.

Why did you join AUSMASA?

We joined AUSMASA to contribute to a more coordinated, national approach to workforce development. Mechanic.com.au operates with direct, real-time visibility into the challenges facing workshops across the country. This includes attracting apprentices, retaining skilled technicians, and navigating an increasingly complex and evolving industry.

AUSMASA provides a national forum where those insights can be brought together with education providers, government, and industry stakeholders to shape more aligned, effective responses.

There is a clear opportunity to move beyond fragmented initiatives toward a more unified approach. AUSMASA represents a step in that direction, and a platform where meaningful collaboration can occur.

How do you think AUSMASA membership has enabled you to influence national skills and workforce development?

AUSMASA has enabled us to bring grounded, industry-led insight into national workforce discussions, ensuring that strategy is informed by what is actually happening on the ground. Through our community and platform, we have a continuous feedback loop with the industry. This provides a level of visibility that is difficult to replicate through traditional channels, and allows us to contribute perspectives that are practical, current, and outcome-focused.

It has also created the opportunity to align initiatives like GearUP with broader national efforts, strengthening their impact and ensuring they contribute to a more connected system rather than operating in isolation.

The opportunity ahead is to build shared infrastructure that links industry, education, and employment pathways in a coordinated way. Mechanic.com.au, through both its community and the GearUP initiative, is positioned to play a central role in enabling that at a national level.

Drive positive change in your industry!

Join us and shape the future of workforce development in the mining and automotive sectors. As a member, your organisation will have a voice in national discussions alongside industry, peers, government and educators.

To find out how to become an AUSMASA member, visit our member page.