Rolls Royce opens its books for this years apprenticeships, with 20 places available in 2017.

Rolls-Royce Motor Cars has announced that a record number of places are available for the company’s 2017 Apprenticeship Programme. Since the programme was launched in 2006, numbers have progressively increased, with 2017 offering a record 20 candidates the opportunity to join the team at the Home of Rolls-Royce in Goodwood, West Sussex.

The Rolls-Royce Motor Cars Apprenticeship Programme provides 16-24 year olds with the opportunity to learn and develop skills at the Home of the world’s leading luxury manufacturer. 

The apprenticeships last for up to four years and allow successful candidates to build a career by completing college courses that are nationally recognised, alongside on-the-job training at Rolls‑Royce Motor Cars. The programme has been designed in conjunction with several local colleges.

Those applicants who stand out during the selection process will join in August 2017, working alongside specialised craftspeople in leather, wood, paint, engineering and assembly roles. 

Since the launch of the Apprenticeship Programme in September 2006, over 100 people have joined the programme. Following a successful apprenticeship period, there is an opportunity to develop within the company, with many Apprentices now taking up leadership roles.

Torsten Müller-Ötvös, CEO of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, said, “I am delighted to announce the start of recruitment for this year’s Apprenticeship Programme. We are committed to developing future talent at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars and I am especially pleased that we will welcome a record number of new Apprentices to the business in 2017. The development of artisanal craft skills at our centre of excellence here in West Sussex, has been a hallmark of the first successful chapter in the renaissance of Rolls-Royce Motor Cars. I look forward to welcoming the next generation of talented craftspeople to the Home of Rolls-Royce in the Summer.”

In addition to the Apprenticeship Programme, around 100 university students were employed with the company in 2016 on industrial placements, ranging in duration from six to 12 months. Rolls‑Royce Motor Cars is currently recruiting for positions in 2017. The company also runs a successful Graduate Programme, with new positions made available each year.

Potential candidates for all Rolls-Royce Motor Cars positions should apply online at:

www.rolls-roycemotorcars.com/careers

The closing date for Apprentice applications is 13 March 2017.

Peugeot to begin production and sale of cars in Nigeria.

On Friday, 11 July 2014, PSA Peugeot Citroën and PAN Nigeria Limited signed an assembly and sale of cars agreement in Nigeria.

The first vehicle concerned by the agreement will be the Peugeot 301, the assembly of which will begin in the second half of 2014 at the Kaduna plant.

Under the terms of the agreement, PAN Nigeria Limited will also be able to assemble the Peugeot 508 and the Peugeot 308.

Peugeot will leverage a network of roughly a dozen dealers that will be capable of rapidly implementing the quality standards required by the Brand and supporting its business growth in Nigeria.

The agreement is aligned with the new automotive industry development policy established by the Nigerian government.

Africa’s most populous nation with about 170 million people, and its largest economy with GDP of €372 billion in 2013 and growth of 7.4% forecast for 2014, Nigeria is emerging as a key growth driver at the level of the entire continent.

Commenting on the signature of this new agreement, Jean-Christophe Quémard, Operations Director, Africa-Middle East said: "This assembly agreement perfectly illustrates what the Group aims to achieve with its new region-based organisation. As announced in the “Back in the Race” strategic plan, we are going to focus more on growth markets. The assembly of the Peugeot 301 in Nigeria, a growth pillar in Africa, will enable the Group to take full advantage of growth opportunities in the market."

Jaguar Land Rover to share knowledge of Aluminium production with competitors.

It's the exact opposite of hush-hush corporate security: Jaguar Land Rover wants to share everything it knows about assembling aluminum-bodied cars.

And that has made Jaguar Land Rover's Solihull assembly plant in England a popular destination for manufacturing executives from Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Ford and others.

Why is the company so happy to share its patented procedures? Because it hopes that doing so will save the company money in the long run.

Jaguar Land Rover would like the industry to adopt standards for raw materials and tools to assemble aluminum vehicles. These standards would cut production costs, and the changes won't happen unless the big players get involved.

Mark White, Jaguar Land Rover's chief technical specialist for aluminum, says automakers producing vehicles with aluminum -- Audi, Mercedes-Benz, Porsche, and soon Ford -- each use a slightly different manufacturing system that includes various grades of aluminum and different rivets, glue, robots and measuring systems.

For example, Jaguar Land Rover will buy 353 million rivets this year to assemble all of its aluminum-bodied vehicles. When production of Ford's aluminum F-150 begins in the fall, Ford will be buying about 2 billion rivets per year, assuming each F-150 has roughly the same number of rivets as an aluminum-bodied Range Rover.

To push the idea of standards, White does a lot of entertaining.

"Mercedes-Benz was here [four] months ago, and we are going to see their S class on a return visit," said White. "They were very impressed with what they saw. And they took a lot of things we do away. Audi was here twice so far, and we are doing some work with them. I am going to see the A8 and I have an open invitation to see the Q7."

Ford's aluminum manufacturing executives visited too, White said.

"The only way we think we can drive the cost down in aluminum production technology is to get into mass production," White says. "If you patent everything, then everyone else is either going to find another way of doing it or they are just not going to do it at all."

Ford declined to comment about sharing with competitors the aluminum manufacturing technology it has developed for the redesigned 2015 F-150 with an aluminum body. But Ford does agree in principle with Jaguar Land Rover. 

"Ford believes that certain industry standards can provide great benefits in terms of cost, quality, efficiency and innovation," said Ford spokeswoman Kristina Adamski. But, she added, "Each process specification would need to be evaluated on a case-by-case basis with respect to the customer and product benefits."

Industry analyst Emmanuel Rosner, of CLSA Americas, estimates that the aluminum F-150 will cost Ford at least $750 more per unit than the steel 2014 model. Based on that number, with production of around 650,000 F-150s per year, the added material cost to use aluminum would be more than $488 million.

Richard Truett