BMW Group has joined forces with other leading UK car manufacturers to help launch the Automotive Apprenticeship Matching Service and develop the skilled workforce of the future.
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 high quality candidates per annum secure an automotive apprenticeship, where the company programmes to which they apply are oversubscribed.
BMW Group currently employs more than 200 apprentices across its UK operations and receives around 1,000 applications for around 50 places each year. It is expected that the Matching Service will be of particular benefit to the wider automotive supply chain in which BMW Group and other car manufacturers operate, ensuring that high-calibre candidates seeking a career in the sector are helped to succeed.
Other employers collaborating and driving the partnership 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 productivity in this growing sector, particularly in manufacturing and engineering disciplines.
The report, published today, 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 fulfill them.
Photo: BMW Group
