The Honda Institute, the company's European centre for technical training and personnel development, has lent support to the motor vehicle Pre-Apprenticeship programme at a Hertfordshire school.

Developed by the Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI), the initiative allows students aged 14 to study vocational subjects alongside their GCSEs. A two-year programme, the Pre-Apprenticeship leads to a Level 1 Award certificate, awarded by the IMI, which enables successful candidates to 'fast track' onto a full Modern Apprenticeship at 16.

In conjunction with the IMI, Honda Institute has supplied protective clothing and safety footwear for 22 budding technicians at Richard Hale School in Hertfordshire, who have “inundated” the school with requests to enrol on the IMI Pre-Apprenticeship. The school will use its own technical training facilities in conjunction with the motor vehicle department at Epping Forest College, which is an IMI approved training centre.