Goodyear Dunlop Apprentices Celebrate First Year at BTCC

Goodyear Dunlop’s first apprentices in 15 years celebrated the end of their first year with the company and the successful progression onto their B-Tec and NVQ III qualifications with a visit to the HiQ British Touring Car Championship at Rockingham. The electrical and mechanical apprentices and their mentors got to see first hand the work of Dunlop Motorsport, following the steep learning curve of 12 months at the business’ Wolverhampton and Birmingham manufacturing sites. The company says that the scheme is developing highly skilled engineers of the future.

Dunlop’s motorsport heritage spans across Europe with a large number of Dunlop motorsport tyres for Europe being made at the company’s Birmingham site. Along with Le Mans and Moto2, the BTCC is at the cutting edge of tyre technology and with Dunlop as exclusive tyre supplier it seamed fitting that the apprentices saw their work in action on the track. The trip was used as an opportunity to thank the key people who have supported the Apprentice scheme throughout the year.

“We are all extremely proud of all that the six have achieved in the last 12 months and how well they have integrated into their respective factories,” stated Derryth Gittings Goodyear Dunlop UK Manufacturing Training and Organisational Development Manager. “This has been made easier by the enthusiasm and eagerness to be involved, of people in the organisation, particularly in the Engineering teams. Even in what has been a difficult year due to the economic situation the apprentices have received the best on-the-job training and mentoring. We look forward to this continuing for the next 3 years of the Apprenticeship.”