Motorpoint – the UK’s largest independent retailer of nearly new cars and vans – is underscoring its commitment to employee development by entering a new partnership which is designed to nurture the talents of future generations of apprentices across its business.
Motorpoint which has a proud record of identifying, nurturing and retaining the best talent, has teamed up with Skillnet, the country’s leading provider of apprenticeships to the automotive industry, in order to hardwire learning and development into its long-term recruitment and retention strategy.
The new partnership means Motorpoint will work with Skillnet to develop a future-proofed, cutting-edge apprenticeship programme to develop its staff across a range of departments and disciplines. Initially, the programme will focus on automotive technician roles, but the ambition is to extend the partnership to include qualifications for team leaders, management trainees, customer service advisors and business administrators.
All training will be fully accredited in line with IMI (Institute of Motor Industry) standards, with graduates gaining nationally-recognised qualifications and eligible for professional registration with IMI.
The move aligns Motorpoint’s ethos that the best staff, well rewarded and motivated will be fundamental to providing the best possible customer experience.
Commenting on the new partnership, which will initially span two years, Motorpoint’s newly appointed COO, Kalwant Singh, said: “At its heart, Motorpoint is a people business, whether those people are our employees or our customers. Without the best people, we cannot possibly hope to deliver the best customer experience.”
He added: “We are particularly excited by this new partnership with Skillnet. It allows us to hone our training and development delivery and enables us to create apprenticeship learning programmes that go beyond the industry standard nurturing the talent that will help us achieve our long-term growth ambitions.”
Michelle Fielder, Early Careers Partner and project lead at Motorpoint, added: “It’s great for us to develop our people and keep them with us on our journey. As a business we have a long history of bringing talent into the business at an early stage and nurturing that talent. Indeed, we have many leaders today who joined as trainees or apprentices which is testament to their talent and our teams for developing these individuals. We are determined to continue this success as this is more important than ever.”
Eugene Lowry, Managing Director, Skillnet, said: “We are absolutely delighted to have been chosen to manage and deliver the Motorpoint National Apprenticeship employee development programme.
“Motorpoint is well known as the UK’s largest independent retailer of nearly new vehicles offering customers quality, service and choice. It is these brand qualities that we have used to design bespoke apprenticeship programmes that develop the skills and knowledge needed for Motorpoint colleagues now and in the future.”
