Kwik-Fit Shows Training Academies to Fleet Customers

Kwik-Fit has thrown open the doors of one of its four UK training academies for the first time to show leading fleet customers the courses its apprentices, fitters and specialist technicians undertake. Representatives of two of the UK’s leading leasing and fleet management companies Masterlease and Carillion went behind the usually closed doors to gain a first-hand insight into the training undertaken by Kwik-Fit’s centre fitters and mobile technicians.

Kwik-Fit employs more than 4,000 people in the UK and the company’s Training Academy, which has operations in Derby, Gloucester, Harlow and Perth, is the foundation for its business success. That success in the fleet industry translates into a dominant market share of the UK fast-fit market with solus or dual supply agreements with almost all of the country’s top 50 contract hire and leasing companies; more than one million vehicles on tyre management programmes and more than 60 industry awards that recognise best practice delivery in the company car and van marketplace.

Staff from Masterlease, which operates around 100,000 vehicles, and Carillion Fleet Management, which manages more than 13,000 vehicles, spent a day at the Derby Training Academy. Tim McNicholas, senior contracts manager at Masterlease, said: “Behind the well-known Kwik-Fit brand is a very professional Academy powered by millions of pounds worth of investment in high-quality technical training. Having the opportunity to see this Academy in action gave the team at Masterlease further confidence in the working relationship we have with Kwik-Fit in the provision of fast-fit operations to our 100,000-strong fleet.”

Annually, Kwik-Fit recruits approximately 120 apprentices who all undergo a two-year NVQ Level 2 in Vehicle Fitting (Fast-Fit) and then go on to become fitters, brake specialists and master managers having undergone in-depth training in relation to the company’s range of services, which now embrace: tyres, batteries, exhausts, brakes, steering and wheel alignment, air conditioning recharging, vehicle servicing and MoTs.

Having completed their apprenticeships and started to climb the career ladder, technicians undergo continuous training, assessment and development to ensure their work remains industry-leading and the latest repair techniques are embraced.

Kwik-Fit, to give its training programmes a further boost, is aiming to have Automotive Technician Accreditation for all its service engineers by the end of 2008. (ATA is a voluntary assessment programme for retail motor industry technicians designed to recognise technical competence and raise the professional status and credibility of skilled individuals. It has the backing of numerous organisation including the Sector Skills Council for the retail motor industry, BSI Product Services, Department of Trade and Industry, Retail Motor Industry Federation, Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders and Trading Standards Institute).

The Training Academy visit was organised by Kwik-Fit Fleet corporate account managers Justin Edgington and Kieron Mortlock. Edgington said: “We are continually extending the range of services we offer to fleets, most recently air conditioning recharging, but no customers have ever seen inside our academies or been taken through the range of courses that our staff have to successfully pass before being allowed to work on cars and vans.”

Kwik-Fit’s training budget totals more than £3 million and the ALI report placed Britain’s largest independent fast-fit company in the top 20 per cent for training among businesses operating in the engineering, technology and manufacturing sector in the UK.