SWINDON APPRENTICES ARE HIRED!

Three years of hard work and training have paid off for two Swindon apprentices after they qualified as a technicians with the town’s Volkswagen, Mann Egerton.

Matthew Ford (23), from Grange Park and Kieran McDonnell (23) from Swindon, joined the Frankland Road retailer in 2008 as apprentices, and have now achieved personal goals to become fully-qualified Volkswagen technicians.

Both Matthew and Kieran are now focusing on their next goals of becoming master technicians, a process which will take a further five years of training.

Mann Egerton Volkswagen’s service manager, Graham Beasant, said: “Matthew and Kieran have both worked diligently during the training programme and fully deserve to reach technician status.

“They are both accomplished and confident technicians and everyone at Mann Egerton is pleased they are forging good careers for themselves.”

Matthew and Kieran completed ‘A’ levels and worked in various jobs before deciding they wanted a career in the automotive industry.

Kieran said: “I’m over the moon to have qualified as this is really the only job I’ve ever wanted to do. I really enjoy the work and I’m looking forward to taking even more qualifications and specialising in particular Volkswagen vehicles.

Matthew added: “We’re both really grateful to Mann Egerton, because they have shown faith in our abilities and backed our ambitions by spending money on the training programme.”

It costs over £40,000 to train a candidate to technician status with further investment to continue developing a technician.