SIR: I was delighted to read in your business page on April 15 that another garage in Bolton, Smith Knight Fay, is going to follow our example set over the last 40 years, and train their own skilled staff through the correct Indentured Apprentice system - now called a Modern Apprenticeship, instead of relying on others to train for them. Over this time we have regularly recruited four or more apprentices each year from the 150 or so applications we receive for our four year programme and have despaired to see the number of garages and national fast-fit operators failing to offer any long term investment in training - only to then "lure" newly qualified staff away from such as Gordons or R.R.G. who have made that long term commitment.

Of course all investment costs - and returns on Apprentice Training - take a long time to be seen. Could I therefore ask your car owning readers through this paper - that when they are next looking for an exhaust, clutch, bodywork, other repairs or routine servicing - they bear in mind the employment prospects of our school leavers, and ask the company they are considering to deal with - "Do you employ Indentured Apprentices being trained to N.V.Q. level three or higher?". If enough businesses are encouraged to follow suit - another 50 or more eager young applicants each year could soon be training to acquire the high-tech skills needed nowadays to care for the latest generation of cars.

O S Seymour, Director

Gordons (Bolton) Ltd

Higher Bridge Street, Bolton

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.