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New Apprentices Join Vauxhall

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2016 Opel Astra

At the Vauxhall Ellesmere Port Assembly Plant near Cheshire in the UK, about 40 young people from the region started work as Production Operator Apprentices. The apprenticeship is the first step towards a career with the General Motors subsidiary, and these 40 apprentices were chosen out of more than 800 applicants.

Vauxhall’s apprenticeship program was designed in partnership with Unite the Union and West Cheshire College. Unite the union is the largest trade union in the UK and Ireland and represents the employees of the assembly plant. The apprentices start their education at West Cheshire College with an intense three weeks of training. The program includes qualifications in Industrial Environment Awareness, Maths and English Functional Skills Level 1, Performing Manufacturing Operations, and Applying Business Improvement Techniques. These qualifications are part of a standardized system in the UK that allows the qualifications to be transferred to different programs in the future, or allows future employers to know that certain benchmarks and standards were met in training.

Now that they are moving on to the Assembly Plant, members of the team could be assigned to General Assembly, Body Unit, or Paint Unit positions.

The Vauxhall Assembly Plant is responsible for the Astra, a very popular model heading into a new generation. Management hopes that apprentice programs like this will ensure the future of Vauxhall’s reputation for quality and reliability.

News Source: Cheshire Today