Renault Trucks recognise excellence
Renault Trucks UK Ltd recognised and rewarded its apprentices at the end of October, with the presentation of its annual Apprentice of the Year Awards at the Heritage Motor Museum at Gaydon. The awards recognise the top performers across all three years of the apprentice programme for technical apprentices and, for the first time, also recognised the top performer amongst the customer service apprentices.
This year’s winner were, in the Technical Apprenticeship category; Year 1 – Daniel Willis of RH Commercial Vehicles at Nottingham, Year 2 – Bradley Page of Complete Vehicles at Swindon and Year 3 – Chris Peat of RH Commercial Vehicles again, at Nottingham.
The winner of the Customer Service apprentice of the year was Matthew Melia of Renault Trucks Midlands at Tipton.
In addition to the top performers awards, the event also saw the graduation of 13 students, who had successfully completed their final year.
All of the award winners and graduates are part of the Renault Trucks Advanced Apprenticeship Options Programme, which is operated by Renault Trucks in conjunction with its training partner, the RAC.
The apprentices are employed directly in the dealerships across Renault Trucks’ UK network where they gain hands on practical experience on a day-to-day basis. They also attend block release training at either Renault Trucks’ dedicated training facility at its new headquarters in Dunstable or one of two RAC regional training centres at Ashfield and Warrington. Currently, there are 70 apprentices in the programme and those that graduated, will continue in full time employment at their dealerships.
“The apprentice awards ceremony is very much about recognition for the achievement of these outstanding young men”, says Laurent Farman, Managing Director of Renault Trucks UK Ltd.
“The apprentice programme is of critical importance to Renault Trucks in the UK and we are very committed to this programme.
It is crucial that we have qualified and skilled people working in the workshops in our dealerships, as the quality of service our network employees can provide is vital to their survival, even more so in these tough market conditions.
The apprentice programme is a cornerstone of our growth plan for the UK market, enabling us to grow our own, fully qualified workshop technicians and customer service staff who will remain and continue to grow with us into the future.
Good apprentices will always find employment in our network and we’re delighted to reward our highest achievers on an annual basis.”
Andy Kemp, the Renault Trucks Programme Manager at the RAC goes on to explain, “We have a dedicated team of trainers that are fully integrated with Renault Trucks’ own training team. Together, they have delivered over 2,000 training days in a 12 month period, both at Dunstable, within dealerships and at our regional centres, which is a massive achievement.
We believe that this is the best apprentice training programme in the commercial vehicle industry and are very proud to be part of it.”
Brian Burns, Network Training Manager at Renault Trucks takes up the story. “We have recently invested over £1 million in a custom built training facility at our new headquarters in Dunstable where the apprentices come for their block release sessions. This encompasses a brand new 3-bay workshop, fully equipped with all the latest computer diagnostic equipment, tools and engines. We have also built 4 dedicated training classrooms, which are fitted with the latest AV and Smart whiteboard technology to enable us to provide high quality training presentations.
All of our apprentices put a lot of commitment and effort into their work and it’s our pleasure to recognise their success at our awards lunch, which they attend with their parents and representative staff from their dealerships. This year’s graduates can look forward to a fulfilling and stable career within our network, but the learning doesn’t stop there.
In addition to the apprentice programme we offer in excess of 60 training and development courses for technical and commercial staff across Renault Trucks and its network. The commercial courses range from basic IT skills right up to senior director development.”
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