19-year-old Cameron Palmer from Ashbourne, Derbyshire, has been crowned the 2022 Halfords BTCC Apprentice of the Year competition winner. Cameron, who is a Level Three apprentice and has been based at the Wyvern Halfords Autocentre in Derby for the past six months, fought off competition from apprentices all over the country to come out on top.
Kwik Fit is marking National Apprenticeship Week with plans to expand its apprenticeship scheme and recruit more than 300 apprentices in 2022. Throughout the week beginning 7 February Kwik Fit will also be featuring current apprentices on its social media channels, enabling them to share their own experiences of the apprenticeship programme and why they opted for an automotive career.
Pro-Align vehicle diagnostic expert and Hella Gutmann will bring a hands-on workshop experience to Lanarkshire in Scotland in November 2021. The event, giving business owners and vehicle technicians from across Scotland an opportunity to trial on some of the world’s leading industry systems, will be hosted by New College Lanarkshire on 17 November. Pro-Align is the sole UK distributor of leading US wheel servicing equipment brand Hunter. Hella Gutmann is a pioneer of advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) calibration for the independent aftermarket. Recognising the increasing synergies between their areas of expertise, the two companies became brand partners earlier in 2021.
The NMDA will discuss standards for the motorcycle technician apprenticeship at a virtual meeting in August for dealer members. The association wants to ensure the programme remains relevant and up to date. “Following a turbulent 2020, the NMDA is keen to get apprenticeships back at the forefront of our agenda”, said Paddy O’Connell, head of the National Motorcycle Dealers Association (NMDA).
During Mental Health Awareness Week which ran from 10 to 16 May 2021, Drive My Career announced a new “Supercharged” virtual event which will take place on 9 June 2021 to support apprentices’ mental health and wellbeing. The session follows the success of the first “Driving Inclusivity in Automotive” event held in December 2019 in partnership with dealer group Lookers. External speakers from Babcock International, Ben, the automotive charity, Lookers and the National Franchised Dealers Association (NFDA) will be covering a number of issues related to apprentices’ wellbeing.
Cheadle-based Klarius Products is offering aspiring young professionals the chance to build a career in engineering, with the business hiring four new apprentices. The largest UK manufacturer of aftermarket exhausts, Klarius is looking for applicants to join its Administration, Maintenance, Technical and Quality departments.
The Covid-19 pandemic may have caused the biggest financial crisis of a generation as well as record spending and borrowing levels, but economic highlights aren’t as bad as was expected and UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak isn’t raising taxes as fast as feared. Here, Tyres & Accessories takes a look at the main points pertaining to the tyre business and specifically: the furlough extension, the corporation tax increase, continued business rates holiday, and the introduction of freeports.
The National Franchised Dealers Association (NFDA), which represents franchised car and commercial vehicle retailers in the UK, has welcomed the Prime Minister’s “Skills Speech”, given at Exeter College yesterday. Boris Johnson said: “So I can announce today that we will be expanding apprenticeships, reforming the system so that unspent funds can be used more easily to support apprenticeships not just in big companies, but in the SMEs where there is so much potential for job creation”.
On 16 January 2019 Remit Group invited representatives from OEMs, tyre manufacturers, equipment suppliers and the media to its existing Derby training academy in order to learn more about the organisation’s forthcoming “Derby 2” training academy. Tyres & Accessories joined representatives from the likes of MAN, Scania, Michelin, Autogem to name just a few in order to find out more.
A new initiative driven by the NTDA will see 75 apprentices work towards the new Specialist Tyre Operative standard this year.
The Independent Garage Association (IGA) is making apprentice funding, recruitment and retention clearer for independent garages with the publication of The Garage Guide to Recruiting an Apprentice.
Findings from Drive My Career’s latest Insight revealed that 95 per cent of apprentices would remain with the same company if they received a job offer after their apprenticeship.
One of the UK’s leading lubricant manufacturers has demonstrated its commitment to developing the next generation of talent by extending its apprenticeship programme. Fuchs Lubricants currently has 13 apprentices operating from its UK headquarters in Stoke-on-Trent, and the search is on for more youngsters to join the growing team.
As the motor industry shifts towards a connected, electrified future, many roles within the sector have evolved beyond recognition. Jason Ratcliffe, level four master technician at Rybrook Volvo in Warrington, puts the spotlight on how the role of a vehicle technician has transformed significantly in the short time since he embarked on Volvo Car UK’s apprentice scheme aged 16.
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Kwik Fit
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