Carmakers join forces on new apprenticeship partnership

LEADING UK car manufacturers have joined forces to help launch a new apprenticeship scheme.

The Automotive Apprenticeship Matching Service will help develop the skilled workforce needed by the firms to secure their future. It will also stop potential recruits from slipping through the cracks or giving up on the industry and looking elsewhere for a career.

The new Matching Service, developed and funded through the Automotive Industrial Partnership (an industry skills collaboration, supported by government), will help up to 10,000 candidates each year secure an automotive apprenticeship, where the company programmes to which they apply are oversubscribed.

One company to have pledged its support is the BMW Group, which currently employs more than 200 apprentices across its UK operations. It receives around 1,000 applications for its annual intake of 50 trainees.

It is expected that the Matching Service will be of particular benefit to the wider automotive supply chain in which the OEMs operate, ensuring that high-calibre candidates seeking a career in the sector are helped to succeed.

Other employers collaborating on the scheme include Bentley, Ford, GKN, Honda, Jaguar Land Rover, Nissan, Toyota and Vauxhall.

The launch of the service comes as new research carried out by advanced manufacturing skills body Semta, on behalf of the Automotive Industrial Partnership, reveals how a shortage of adequate training provision in the sector could start to impact on the skills needed to sustain automotive productivit, particularly in manufacturing and engineering disciplines.

The report complements earlier research which found up to 5,000 job vacancies in the sector could be vacant due to a lack of skills needed to fulfil them.

Dr Simon Farrall, Head of Apprentice and Associate Training at BMW Group and Vice-Chair of the Automotive Industrial Partnership, said: “As a major UK employer that is committed to developing skills in our industry, we’re delighted to be working with the Automotive Apprenticeship Matching Service. Each year we have huge interest in our apprenticeship programmes and receive far more applications than there are places available. There are some very capable candidates who apply to us and we don’t want to simply turn people away.

“By introducing these candidates to the Matching Service, engineering businesses can access these quality applicants, which enables them to recruit more effectively. This not only enables companies to secure their talent pipeline but also helps to retain and nurture much needed skills within the automotive sector.”

Jo Lopes, Head of Technical Excellence at Jaguar Land Rover and Chair of the Automotive Industrial Partnership said, “As an industry, the automotive sector has a long standing history of providing apprenticeships – and there are many great career opportunities. But we recognise that there is more we can do to attract and support our new talent pipeline. By taking a collaborative and innovative approach to developing new skills solutions, with larger employers working alongside smaller component manufacturers we are ensuring that our whole industry will benefit.”

The new initiative already has the support of the government.

Skills Minister Nick Boles said: “The UK is the most productive of all European car manufacturers – if we are to maintain this position, it’s essential that we have the right skills. Apprenticeships provide an opportunity for young people to gain valuable skills that employers in the industry want and need and services like the Automotive Apprenticeship Matching Service are a prime example of industry working together to make the most of the opportunities they can offer.”