The Institute for the Motor Industry (IMI) has
secured over £3m in investment to address shortcomings in the
automotive retail sector, including ‘poor levels of management and
leadership’.

Funding has been awarded to all six projects
tendered by the IMI in bidding for the government’s Employer
Investment Fund (EIF) run by the UK Commission for Employment and
Skills (UKCES) and includes money earmarked to assess, accredit and
retain managers and leaders in franchised and independent car
dealerships.

The six IMI projects are:

  • Develop an infrastructure to improve the poor levels of
    management and leadership capability in the sector
  • Making and winning the economic argument for employer
    investment in skills using Return on Investment studies
  • Increasing current competence levels developing a new approach
    to up-skilling the automotive technician population
  • Expand and embed the automotive sector’s Professional Register
    as the voluntary license to practice
  • Attracting and retaining talent in the automotive sector
  • Development of a 14-16 Automotive vocational programme to
    reduce the number of young people becoming not in education,
    employment, training (NEET)

The EIF scheme run by UKCES is designed to
encourage and reward businesses that invest in the long-term
development of employees’ skills.

The IMI said that the investment would be used
to help individuals train, gain industry qualifications and be
rewarded, thus motivating an improved professionalism in a sector
worth £146bn and that generates £25bn in Gross Value Added.

Sarah Sillars, executive chair of the IMI,
said the funding was “a significant achievement for the Institute
on behalf of the retail automotive industry and acknowledges the
importance of the sector to the UK economy,” and would “help the
automotive industry improve its image, status, skills and
productivity.”

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