HRH The Princess Royal has this week met teenagers who are learning vehicle repair skills in the new Ford Motor Company Mechanics Workshop located in a young offenders' institution.
Princess Anne opened the workshop at Ashfield Young Offenders Institution in Pucklechurch, South Gloucestershire, and saw the offenders work on vehicles, engines and transmissions supplied by Ford Motor Company.
Ashfield's Ford Motor Company Mechanics Workshop houses a Ford Focus, Britain's top selling car, and a Freelander donated by sister company Land Rover. The teenagers learn automotive repair and service skills to gain vocational qualifications which help secure employment after release.
Powertrain items supplied by Ford's British plants have further equipped the new workshop. Engine plants in Bridgend, South Wales, and Dagenham, Essex, sent petrol and diesel units to help the offenders learn how high tech engines work and are assembled. The two plants between them produce engines for one in four Ford Motor Company vehicles sold worldwide.
The workshop's gearboxes were built at Ford's transmission plant, at Halewood on Merseyside. Southampton Plant - home of the Ford Transit - sent software which enables PC users at the young offenders' institution to enjoy a virtual tour of the Hampshire facility and see Transit production on screen.
Andy Taylor, Ford's European director of corporate citizenship, showed Princess Anne round the Ford Motor Company Mechanics Workshop. He said: The Ford Motor Company group is delighted to assist in the process of providing real world skills to these young lads. We hope that this support provides the opportunity for them to contribute fully to society in the future.
The rest of the visit provided the princess with an insight into other innovative training programmes helping Ashfield's 15 to18 year olds avoid returning to crime after their release.
These include parenting skills for the 25 per cent of teenagers at Ashfield who have young children, literacy and numeracy for the 80 per cent whose reading or writing ability is below the level of an average seven-year-old and drug awareness as 70 per cent of young people at Ashfield have had substance or alcohol problems.
Centre director Vicky O'Dea said: We are very pleased that the Princess Royal has come to see the first-class work being done by our staff here. The new Ford Motor Company Mechanics Workshop allows them to learn skills which give a real chance of finding a job. The new cars, engines and transmissions from Ford and its partners mean the lads know they are working on up-to-date models on the road today.
Ashfield is not the first example of Ford helping young offenders prepare themselves for future careers as vehicle technicians. Feltham Young Offenders Institution's workshop was equipped by Ford with vehicles, tools and components in 2002. It is run in partnership with Retail Motor Industry Training (ReMIT) and UK Youth, an education network for young people.
Feltham's workshop has seen more than 100 detainees undertake motor mechanics apprenticeships, with two securing jobs in car dealerships afterwards.
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