AutoRaise, the vehicle repair industry charity that exists to help ensure there is a sustainable workforce for the industry, have made contact with PwC, the administrators of Nationwide Accident Repair Centres to offer support and assistance to any technical apprentices that were made redundant due to the closure of some sites.
Bob Linwood, CEO, comments, "When I saw that 540 staff had been made redundant, I was concerned that some of those may have been young people who were still in the middle of their apprenticeship. Given that one of our roles in the industry is to help young people have a great experience throughout their apprenticeship, it made total sense to try and contact the administrators and offer our services."
PwC responded immediately to AutoRaise' s approach and as a result, organised for all redundant apprentices to be made aware that AutoRaise were offering to help them find alternative employment in the industry and to hopefully continue their learning. Within hours, AutoRaise started to receive emails from these young people and have started the information gathering process as part of the next step.
"We need to know their age, location, mobility situation, what apprenticeship they have been on and for how long." explains Bob. "We are also offering advice on completing a CV and explain to each candidate that whilst there are no guarantees, we will do our best to locate repairers in their area and establish if any opportunity exists for an interview."
Repairers are being asked by AutoRaise to contact the charity if they would be in a position to consider taking on a partly trained apprentice. They can do this by contacting Jen Evans at
[email protected] or by telephone on 0845 644 0339.
AutoRaise are also very mindful that the governments furlough scheme will be ending soon and are asking any repairers that are faced with making apprentices redundant to make contact at the appropriate time so AutoRaise can help keep these young people in apprenticeships within our industry.
Jennifer Evans