Continental Tyres expanding training capabilities in 2022

Continental Tyres is growing its in-house ‘ContiAcademy’ training centre following an increase in demand for courses this year. Situated in Lutterworth, Leicestershire, the ContiAcademy will benefit from a larger and newly refurbished classroom and additional breakout room to accommodate larger groups in accordance with COVID-safety measures.

During the last 12 months, the ContiAcademy team has delivered more than 100 training sessions through a combination of on-site, virtual and hybrid delivery methods. Courses range from fitting and maintenance to tyre life management, health and safety and wheel security.

To help meet any specific customer needs, the ContiAcadamy can also design and deliver bespoke training courses that cover a broad range of applications. The academy caters for a wide range of companies, including tyre fitters, fleet operators and, most recently, the Health & Safety Executive.

“We’ve seeing exceptional demand for our training courses,” explains Gwyn Fennell, Technical Service and Training Manager at Continental. “We’re making some necessary changes to our facilities to enable us to continue to deliver our training at the very highest standard. By increasing our teaching space, we can return to pre-pandemic class sizes, while maintaining the same personal approach that’s vital for safety-based training.”

Continental reports that “customers have exhibited strong demand for the REACT roadside training and Tyre Professional Development Scheme courses”. Both are delivered in partnership with the National Tyre Distributor Association. The ContiAcademy is also increasing its training provision alongside the Institute of the Motor Industry with the launch of a tyre forensics course next year.

“We continuously review our training programmes and look to the industry to identify new courses that could be of benefit to customers,” Gwyn adds. “The past year has also shown us that there is a desire for hybrid and virtual classroom training to remain available, as it provides a considerable time-based cost saving for many of our clients. The ContiAcadamy will, of course, continue to offer in-person classroom training sessions, as well as practical sessions on relevant courses.”