Car saleroom apprenticeship applications come rolling in

The candidates will now fight for a chance to be accepted as a sales apprentice at the Sytner Mercedes Benz showroom in London Road.
Not one person had applied for the £15,000 post offered by national training provider Remit, despite being advertised on the National Apprenticeship Website, as well as in job and community centres in and around Newbury since mid-July.
The company said that it had been left feeling “a bit bewildered” by the lack of applications, but the dealer principal based at the Mercedes London Road showroom, Anthony Williamson, who started his career as a workshop apprentice, said that it had now received around 25.
“It does seem that Newbury is quite difficult to recruit people. Newbury always gets less than everyone else but that’s for all apprenticeships we have.
“It seems to be something with the Newbury area, I can’t say exactly what, whether it’s because they think there are better prospects in London or because people travel out to work rather than work in the town.”
The influx of applications comes one week after the Newbury Weekly News highlighted the lack of interest in the scheme.
Although he said it was difficult to say what had led to the sudden surge in applications, Mr Williamson said that newspaper coverage could help explain the rise in applications.
“There have been people who have applied who saw it in the Newbury Weekly News and on the Daily Mail website,” he said.
The apprenticeship is open until August 31 and those applying must have a valid UK driving licence and grades A-C in GCSE mathematics and English and be educated to at least A-level standard.
To apply, call Remit on 08458 399200 or visit www.remit.co.uk