LV= has furthered its partnership with AutoRaise – the industry skills charity – by being the first to assist with emergency funding in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic.
AutoRaise fundraising activity has been significantly impacted by the pandemic which prompted the charity to call on some of its existing partners to consider making an additional funding pledge.
LV= were the first to offer their support.
Bob Linwood, AutoRaise CEO, said, “In many ways, I wasn’t surprised at all when LV= offered a further contribution.
“LV= have stood shoulder-to-shoulder with us, totally understanding that the vehicle repair industry needs to invest in young people to create a sustainable workforce in the future. They have supported everything we have done, have even created their own initiatives to raise awareness of the charity’s aims and are always first to offer their support.
“Their whole management team, from Martin Milliner to Brian Hodge, Chris Payne, Michael Golding and their respective teams, absolutely get it.
Martin Milliner, LV=‘s GI claims director, said, “We totally believe in AutoRaise and the work that they carry out. We’ve supported from day one and a great example of their work showed recently in their intervention with apprentices being made redundant. I’m really impressed and very grateful for the work they do on behalf of the industry.”
Brian Hodge, director of motor customer claims, added, “Here at LV= we are incredibly proud of our long-standing association with AutoRaise and we have seen first-hand the impact they have made on new apprenticeship starts in our own repair network. We are acutely aware that our young people are the future and we all have a responsibility to ensure we support their development if we are to have a truly sustainable and capable industry to meet the ever changing needs of our customers.
“AutoRaise have been the catalyst for many of our approved repairers to adopt apprenticeship programmes and we need a fully functioning AutoRaise in our industry to ensure sustainability.
“I personally would urge every significant stakeholder in our industry to consider what their business model will look like in 5, 10, 20 years’ time with a continuing decline in numbers of qualified technicians in the industry. It’s a significant challenge and one we need to address collectively for the greater good.”
