November 2020

52 AFTERMARKET NOVEMBER 2020 TRAINING www.aftermarketonline.net Upcoming training dates and news on courses TRAINING UPDATE The SMMT Charitable Trust Fund (SCTF) recently enacted the SMMT Apprentice Support Programme, a £100,000 investment designed to help safeguard the jobs of apprentices employed by small and medium- sized businesses within the UK automotive industry, but whose positions were at risk of redundancy due to COVID-19 related business pressures. There are currently some 59,000 young people employed in apprenticeship positions across the sector. Gareth Jones, Chairman of the SMMT Charitable Trust Fund, said: “As a former technical apprentice myself I can only imagine the devastating impact of losing your apprenticeship, particularly if you are close to completing your qualification. This timely and much needed initiative from the STCF will provide critical and well targeted support to ensure we retain some fantastic talent and potential in our industry.” The scheme was open to SMMT member companies and required successful applicants needed to contribute towards the full £14,000 apprentice salary, in order to unlock a stipend as made available by the SMMT Charitable Trust Fund. The Programme opened on Monday 28 September, with the deadline for all applications falling on Friday 16 October 2020. Schaeffler adds wheel bearing training video Schaeffler’s REPXPERT workshop support programme has been bolstered with a new video for front and rear wheel bearing replacement on a 2012 Ford Fiesta. Commenting on the new video, Schaeffler Marketing and Digital Media Executive Tony Yates said: “With around two million Ford Fiesta and Ka models that use these bearings on the UK’s roads, this should be a popular repair for any independent workshop, so this additional resource to the REPXPERT portal provides another really useful video for mechanics.” The new video can be found via the REPXPERT app or within the online training section at www.repxpert.co.uk Welcome to Aftermarket’s training section. Here you can find the latest on upcoming training dates, as well as news on courses becoming available. If you have information on training you wish to share, please get in touch with the editor via email: alex@aftermarket.co.uk SMMT support apprenticeships via COVID-19 salary scheme Follow us on Facebook @aftermarketmagazine