Dear Staffordshire Motorist,

I am writing to you to ask for your help with an important issue regarding the employment prospects of local young people.

It is the time of the year when we would normally be interviewing young people for the post of Apprentice Technician in our workshop. We recently won the award for the best employer of apprentices in the whole of Staffordshire across all industries and this is the achievement of which we are most proud throughout the 34 years we’ve been in business in Endon.

Since our inception in April 1977 we have created over 500 years of employment for the local community, and nearly all of our staff over those years started out as apprentices. Like many in North Staffordshire, our senior management team were ALL apprentices (some …. a very long time ago!) so we know exactly how important the experience gained as an apprentice is to young people. We derive huge satisfaction from watching our apprentices grow in skill, knowledge and confidence as they learn their trade. Whether they stay with us or move on, we know we’ve given them a great start in life.

Youth unemployment is at an all-time high, and it has never been harder for young people to get a job, learn a trade, and become valuable contributors to our community. This problem is made worse by the terrible pressure on small businesses like ours from the current state of the economy. Unless we try something radical we can’t afford to take on another apprentice at the moment. But we really don’t want to give in, so we need your help. We are asking you very sincerely, as a possible valued supporter of our small business, to help us with our plans for a new apprentice this year via our “Adopt An Apprentice” scheme [AAA] which we believe to be unique in the UK.

We are offering all Staffordshire motorists a Fixed Price Servicing scheme which is described below. This saves the driver lots of money in any case and gives you the opportunity to fix your servicing costs for up to five years at figures starting from only £10+Vat per month. If 200 new customers agree to join the scheme we will guarantee to appoint a new apprentice to add to our current workforce of 15 staff. If 400 customers sign up to the scheme we will appoint TWO apprentices, then giving us three apprentices in total out of 17 staff. We wonder what the apprentice proportion might be at your own place of work?

This is an opportunity to help a local young person get a very promising start in life learning their trade with your local garage AND save yourself some money on car servicing. Customers who support this scheme will, if they wish, have their names prominently displayed in our reception area and on our website with our thanks. But I’m not just petitioning our customers about this - I have asked ALL of our suppliers to pledge a 1% reduction in our purchasing costs. ALL of this money will be dedicated to the furtherance of this apprenticeship scheme.

I will be very pleased to answer any of your questions about this idea, and I’d love to hear any ideas on anything else you think we could be doing to advance this project. Please call us on 01782 505050 during the day or 07866 253869 at any other time, including evenings and weekends. It would be really helpful if you felt able to pass this idea on to your relations, friends and neighbours. The scheme applies to all makes and models of car and light commercial vehicle.

This isn’t a ruthless commercial money-spinner. Far from it - it’s simply a good service from a good company, trying to do a good thing for our community. We put our time and effort into our apprentices because we know it’s the right thing to do. We’re happy to do it and we don’t want to stop. Please help us continue what we feel is vital work for our local young people.

Yours Very Sincerely - Reg Aldridge, Trevor Aldridge, Brian Lawton (Directors of Endon Services Group)