15 prospective apprentices visited its Corby bodyshop on 9th June to get hands on, meet the team and find out more about the accident repair industry.
Guests were able to try their hand at a range of activities to experience the different stages of the repair process. They applied filler to a dented bonnet care of U-POL; created estimates on a damaged vehicle with Audatex; used a paint spray-gun in the spray booth with LKQ Coatings and had a go at paintless dent removal with Car-Mum. BSI Group were also on hand to highlight the importance of Kitemark BS1015 Vehicle Damage Repair.
Top of the range vehicles including a Jaguar F-Type 3.0 V6, Ford Ranger Wildtrak Armoured Plus Edition and the new Mitsubishi all electric Eclipse Cross were loaned for the day from local dealers; as well as the iconic pink Sheilas' Wheels Cadillac from insurer esure.
Group General Manager, Peter Randhawa said: 'We are extremely happy with the outcome of our first showcase event with AutoRaise.
'The talent and enthusiasm of those who joined us on the day were unexpectedly high. It just shows that the skills, passion and knowledge are out there - but it's now our job, and the industry's job, to capture these young people and show them the possibilities of a career within accident repair.
'We hope we were able to portray our industry positively and demonstrate how interesting, diverse and technologically advancing it really is. Most importantly we hope these young people are still interested in applying!'
Bob Linwood, CEO of AutoRaise said: 'AutoRaise were pleased and proud to support the Baldwins of Corby event. The event was perfectly organised and we were delighted to have the opportunity to engage with so many young people and critically, their parents too.
'I am in no doubt that Baldwins will find at least two really strong candidates to award multi-skilled apprenticeships to.
'Baldwins are the latest repairer who have committed to work with AutoRaise to assist them in helping address their own skills crisis. I hope that we have the opportunity to help many more repairers in the coming weeks and months.'
Notes:
The deadline to apply for the two positions of apprentice Vehicle Accident Repair Technician at Baldwins of Corby is Friday 13th July.