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HARLEY-DAVIDSON ANNOUNCES NEW TECHNICAL COLLEGE Harley-Davidson, the world’s oldest continuous motorcycle manufacturer has announced the impending arrival of a dedicated technical college in the UK - the only one if its kind. In association with North East Worcester (NEW) College in Bromsgrove, and government agency Advantage West Midlands (AWM), the new facility will house the latest in state-of-the-art motorcycle maintenance equipment, and will serve as the education centre for Harley-Davidson dealership staff from across the UK and Europe. It represents a sizeable investment from all three organisations and will allow Harley-Davidson to increase the level of training and improve service to its dealerships in the region. Previously, dealership technicians participated in training programs in Germany and Italy, which meant that dealers lost valuable staff for extended periods. With a UK centrally located site, their time away from the dealership is decreased, and armed with further training they will become an even greater asset to the store. The new site also adds a degree of flexibility into the training curriculum offered to Harley-Davidson dealers in the UK. Richard Woodworth, UK technical manager said: “This state-of-the-art, centrally located facility with fully engaged instructors will allow us to deliver education to the dealerships when they most need it as opposed to when they have time for the training. This should increase our effectiveness at dealerships and help us in delivering better service to our valuable customers.” When not in use by dealer technicians the facility will be the home to the NEW College engineering undergraduate courses, providing students with relevant and appropriate experience to begin their careers as technicians and engineers, as well as training in management development, leadership and customer services. AWM is offering a grant of £1.7 million to the NEW College to begin work on a new annex building that will house the facility. Mike Kennedy, managing director of Harley-Davidson UK said: “This College will prove invaluable in training our technicians to the highest standard, promising to bring in undergraduates wishing to qualify and possibly gain employment in the Motor Company’s world-wide dealer network, as well as giving students a kick-start in other vocations. “The West Midlands provides a central base, not far from our European headquarters in Oxford. It will provide training facilities for our UK dealership staff, a large selection of our European, Middle East and African dealerships, and hopefully encourage new blood into the innovative courses that will be on offer at the new centre when it reaches completion.” The next stage in the agreement with NEW College allows Harley-Davidson to recruit “apprentices” for classroom instruction and previously arranged employment with a UK dealership for newly graduated technicians. This will build on Harley-Davidson’s steady growth in the UK market over the last six years, to give dealerships a fully trained pool of technicians to work with record numbers of customers. The UK market already boasts the largest H.O.G. (Harley Owners Group) in Europe with some 12,000 members.
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