Toby Perkins and Dame Margaret Beckett to visit local training provider

Shadow skills minister and local MP to see how Nottingham-based Remit Training is leading the way in tackling the major skills gap in Electric Vehicle maintenance in advance of Britain’s roads going green by 2030.

Shadow skills minister Toby Perkins MP and local MP and former Foreign Secretary Dame Margaret Beckett MP, will tour the state-of-the-art academies of Remit Training in Derby tomorrow (24.02) to see how the independent training provider is working with leading car and truck manufacturers to answer the urgent need for more young talent in the automotive sector to keep Britain moving and supplied.

The senior politicians will be joined on the visit by representatives from Institute for the Motor Industry (IMI) along with manufacturers Volvo Truck & Bus Ltd, MAN Truck and Bus Ltd and IVECO  who have all seen, first-hand, the benefits of Remit’s major investment in apprenticeships and other types of technician training.

The guests will meet apprentices studying Heavy Vehicle Maintenance, Light Vehicle Service and Maintenance, Vehicle Body and Paint and technicians getting qualified to fill the massive skills gap in Electrical Vehicle (EV) Maintenance for cars, vans and trucks. 

According to the IMI, only 6% of the current 250,000 technicians in the automotive sector are EV qualified and the country needs 90,000 qualified by 2030 when no more new petrol and diesel vehicles will be allowed on Britain’s roads.

Not enough apprenticeships to meet EV demand

Remit Training has expressed concern that while many employers would prefer to see more apprenticeships as the solution to filling the EV skills gap, a lack of urgency in the government’s response to the issue means that training providers and employers are choosing to turn to alternative EV qualifications instead.

Remit Training is also calling on government to increase apprenticeship funding rates to cover significantly increased operating costs.  The costs include higher salaries for tutors when demand for their experience and expertise is soaring. 

Remit points out that independent training providers in the automotive sector do not receive any capital funding from government to support the investment in training academies and that even further education colleges are struggling to make training for the sector sustainable.  More investment in facilities and up-to-date equipment will dry up if operating costs are not addressed properly by the government-set funding rates for apprenticeships.

Remit also says that faster action is required to introduce apprenticeship standards that are more tailored to meet the demand for EV technicians.  

Remit Training CEO Sue Pittock said,

“We are delighted to have the opportunity to show Dame Margaret Beckett and Toby Perkins how Remit Training and the biggest global brands in heavy vehicle, light vehicle and body and paint are working together to keep the country supplied and ensure that the rapid increase in EV vehicles are properly maintained.  Young people from across the UK are coming to Derby to receive high quality training and then go back to share newly acquired expertise in their local areas. “Rising inflation and increased wages in a highly competitive sector are having a significant impact on the sustainability of automotive apprenticeships.  Unless the government acts to fund them better, training providers and employers will have little choice but to reach for commercial training solutions instead.”