WITH ALL THE NEGATIVE NEWS coming out of Brittons Hill lately, it can be quite easy to forget that many positive products have been nurtured in this St Michael neighbourhood.
Policemen, doctors, lawyers, skilled craftsmen and women, journalists, sportspeople and the list goes on. One person making a constructive impact on the area is Andre Fergusson, who many have characterised as a magician with vehicles.
You name it, Andre can do it: auto electronics, auto mechanics, rebuilding engines, modifying engines, all aspects of auto body repair.
The rather modest 35-year-old father of three told the DAILY NATION he was just glad for the good response of his clients.
“I am not the type of person who will brag but I try my best to do good work and make customers happy and also myself happy,” he said.
“It is like a natural part of me. Like if you get up in the morning the first thing you do is stretch, me fixing something and making it right is what I do.
“It is like an achievement for me; it is a big goal. When I do something that other people can’t get done, they are glad to see it done and that makes me proud.”
Born and raised in Brittons Hill, he was surrounded by cars, bodywork men and mechanics from a very young age.
His father, Rudolph, was also proficient in auto body repairs before he went on making a name for himself in welding. So the senior Fergusson wasn’t all that surprised when he first witnessed his son taking apart his tiny toy cars when he was just a toddler. And by the time Andre turned 16 and got his first car, he was almost experienced in that area.
Andre recounted that every time something went wrong with the car, his father trusted him to make it right.
“My father would come and sit down, drink a cup of tea and eat biscuits and he would tell me, ‘All you got to do so and so [is] by start taking off all of the bolts’ and we would work from there.
“He sat down, drink his tea and I pull down and pull down, and we went through each part cleaning them. From there I gradually start picking at cars,” Andre recounted with a laugh.
When the teenager started to pull down things and put them back up, it gave him an adrenaline rush.
“It was exciting to know that you can do such a thing and make it work or, for that matter, make it work even better than before. When I pull it down and it didn’t work, I take a break, do like my father do, have a cup of tea and then start back at it again until I get it right,” Andre said.
After he graduated from Grantley Adams Memorial Secondary School, Andre went on to study auto body repair at the Barbados Skills Training Institute. There he attained a job attachment where he remained for some two years. That was, until his father became concerned that, as an asthmatic, Andre was putting himself at risk by working in dusty environs.
He resigned, and from there worked off and on at various bodywork shops, mostly pulling chassis until he got a pick at a machine shop as a mechanical engineer – rebuilding damaged parts for engines. He was about 19 then and he stayed in that job for seven years before moving on to his current employ.
Many have said that because of his talent, he should establish his own business but as it stands, this isn’t something Andre plans on doing just yet. He argued that while owning one’s own business was truly an achievement, it was also a lot of hassle and pressure that he was not ready for.
“I don’t really like that sort of pressure on me. I prefer to work for someone for the time being, do what you have to do. If I got a little one-on-one job on the side, sure, and live from there. I am happy and content with what I have,” he said. Because of the current reputation of his community and the distractions, Andre knows how important it is to embrace the young people of the area and help them with opportunities. That was why he has encouraged businesspeople there to become mentors to the youngsters.
And Andre doesn’t only talk the talk. For the past two years he has been a mentor to 19-year-old aspiring mechanic David Carter. The former St Leonard’s Boys’ student studied at Skills Training but wasn’t headed in a direction to make his parents proud.
“When I went Skills Training I was not learning good ’cause all we use to do was read and write, but then I started working with Andre and I would watch everything thing he did and he would tell me what part of the car it was and the next time he would let me try and now I know what I am doing,” Carter said as he thanked Andre for the opportunity.
Andre is pleased with the young man’s progress.
“If I give he [Carter] a car and tell he what we working with, he can do whatever I ask; he is capable. Even better, his mum and dad like me keeping him occupied and off the streets,” he said.
“When you see the youngsters just lingering about, help them with a little something if they are willing.
“There are a lot of young people who sit down on the streets, they want work but when they go about jobs, the people want experience yet no one is willing to give them the experience they need to qualify for the same job that requires experience.
“People want a little more encouragement. They [are] getting break down too fast because they feeling defeated. They just need more encouragement and some direction,” Andre said. (SDB Media)
