At Nissan's Sunderland Plant
We’ve been reading a lot about apprenticeships in the car industry lately.
They’re becoming increasingly popular with some of the UK’s top car manufacturers.
Amongst these are Nissan, who have just opened their 2012 apprenticeship scheme at their Sunderland factory.
So, are apprenticeships the way to go? We’re taking a detailed look at the Nissan scheme to find out.
Growing their own success
The Sunderland Nissan plant is flourishing by producing popular cars like the Nissan Juke and Nissan Qashqai for purchase, finance and lease in Europe.
And with production of the Nissan LEAF for purchase, finance or lease, starting soon, the plant recently broke its own employment record with 5,400 employees working there.
Another record was broken at the Nissan plant last year, when they produced over 480,000 vehicles, which was more than a third of all passenger cars made for purchase, lease or finance in the UK.
For the fourteenth year in a row, Nissan can lay claim to being the UK’s biggest car manufacturer.
And the Sunderland Plant Engineering Director, Richard Ebrahim, who himself started as an apprentice, has no doubts that Nissan’s apprenticeship scheme is vital to their success.
He describes the scheme as a tried and tested way of investing in the company’s future, with bright opportunities for the apprentices.
It allows Nissan to home grow its future directors and managers, immersing them in the Nissan’s signature ‘Kaizen’ culture from the very start of their careers.
Meaning ‘continuous improvement’ in Japanese, it underpins a corporate culture where employees are always working towards creating an ideal situation for production.
Encoding flexibility and transformation as integral parts of their culture, along with making customer satisfaction the foremost priority, can explain why Nissan cars are proving to be so appealing to people looking to finance, lease or purchase a vehicle.
This philosophy is echoed in the apprenticeship training scheme, which offers the young people a chance to experience different aspects of the production cycle and challenges them to obtain a raft of qualifications.
A look into the life of an apprentice
One of the stars of the Nissan apprenticeship scheme is 21 year-old Ethan Marshall, who has just been declared Nissan Sunderland Plant’s Trainee Maintenance Technician of the Year.
He started on the Nissan scheme in 2008, and works in the No 1 Trim and Chassis shop, where the outstandingly popular Qashqai is produced before being sent out for finance, lease or purchase to customers.
As part of his role, Ethan is completing a Foundation Degree in Maintenance Engineering and makes real world improvements to facilities and software.
He says that Nissan’s position as the most productive UK plant enticed him to apply for the scheme, and he is now enjoying the variety of experiences and challenges that his job provides him.
He praises the scheme for allowing him to gain both hands on experience and highly valued engineering qualifications, and is hoping to enjoy a long career with Nissan.
The requirements
The Nissan scheme is open to young people between the ages of 16-24, who need to have achieved at least 4 GCSE’s, including an A or B grade in Maths.
After a year spent learning the basics at Gateshead College, the apprentices then spend four years mainly on site, learning how to produce vehicles that will be released for finance, lease or purchase.
It seems that by nurturing such home grown talent, Nissan is ensuring the continuing success of its UK operations into the future, with the production of vehicles for purchase, finance, or lease, being lead by people truly committed to the company and its values.
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