NFDA’s DRIVE MY CAREER CELEBRATES AUTOMOTIVE APPRENTICES WITH SOCIAL MEDIA TAKEOVER

During the National Apprenticeship Week (7-13 February), Drive My Career ran the fourth edition of its ‘Apprentice Takeover’ to raise awareness of the apprenticeship opportunities in the automotive industry. The celebration of apprentices reached hundreds of thousands of people; winners from Marshall Motor Group, JCT600 and TrustFord will get free tickets to the British Motor Show.

As part of the #DMCApprenticeTakeover campaign, Drive My Career members were encouraged to take to their social media channels to share their apprentices’ success stories.

This year, Drive My Career selected three winners:

• Marshall Motor Group won for the fourth consecutive time “Best Engagement Overall” as the company shared more than 40 different case studies of current apprentices as well as their managers and mentors, including Chief Executive Daksh Gupta. Through videos, images and graphics dedicated to the Drive My Career’s campaign, Marshall Motor Group was instrumental to the success of the campaign.
• JCT600 won the prize for “Best Stories” as they helped shine a spotlight not only on current apprentices but also on those who have recently qualified. Also, JCT600 informed potential candidates about less traditional automotive career paths as in the case of Mollie Murgatroyd who is working as Brand Marketing Executive at JCT600 Rolls Royce Motor Cars in Leeds following her Marketing apprenticeship.
• The “Best Social Media Post” award went to TrustFord’s Zhara Hunter, second year Apprentice Technician at their Mallusk dealership. Zhara won thanks to an insightful video giving an overview of her apprenticeship, which received a lot of positive engagement on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and Twitter.

Additional stories included Harry, Service Technician Apprentice, and Jack, Parts Apprentice, at Caffyns. Arnold Clark supported the campaign through videos that included Chief Executive and Group Managing Director Eddie Hawthorne, and Kathleen Edie, Apprentice Graduate IT Software Developer.

Social media posts with the hashtag #DMCApprenticeTakeover were shared across a range of platforms attracting over 218 social media mentions and more than 650 interactions, reaching over 400,000 people.

To reward the winners, Drive My Career has partnered with the British Motor Show and will offer two VIP Standard Tickets to the overall winner, and two Family Tickets each to the other two winners. Following last year’s success, the British Motor Show will return to Farnborough between 18 and 21 August 2022. This year, the Show will further increase their focus on the career section aimed at promoting the automotive industry as a great place to work.

Sue Robinson, NFDA Chief Executive said, “Every year, it is extremely encouraging to see franchised dealers give their apprentices the recognition they deserve.

“To address the skills shortage facing our industry and meet the demand for diversely skilled talent, it is vital that our industry continues to invest in what will represent their workforce of the future.

“NFDA and Drive My Career would like to thank our members for their invaluable support, we look forward to continuing to work together to promote the auto retail sector as a great place to work”.