Iveco's training school has become an IMI (Institute of the Motor Industry) Awards Accredited Centre, following an assessment by external verifiers.
The school, based at Iveco's customer services facility in Winsford, will start running the IRTE's (Institute of Road Transport Engineers) irtec technician certification modules in 2014 before introducing Qualified Assured Accreditation (QAA) courses.
The training will be delivered by the school's five on-site trainers to Iveco dealer staff from across the company's UK and Irish network.
"We felt the IMI Awards accreditation would be a perfect fit with what we are trying to achieve here at the training school, and for us to become recognised for the quality of work we do," explains Kevan Woodier, Iveco's training manager.
"The accreditation allows us to provide the irtec modules to all of our technicians – including Service and Maintenance Technician Certification, Vehicle Inspection Certification, Advanced Certification and Master Technician Certification," he continues.
"We also plan to introduce the irtec Service and Maintenance Award for our third year apprentices in the next academic year."
Iveco currently runs an F-Gas course, certified by Bosch, but the company next plans to apply to the IMI for its own certification status.
The next step in the process is for Iveco's trainers to undergo assessor training, with an external verifier from IMI visiting the school up to three times per annum to reassess the training modules.
"Ultimately we want to roll out our own QAA endorsed courses," explains Woodier.
"There is a whole new skill set to be learnt by our trainers for them to become assessors, but our aim is that, once we have got all the pieces of the jigsaw in place, we will be in a position to introduce the new courses to our network in early 2014."
