At Sparshatt Truck & Van we frequently hold apprentice enrichment days, where several apprentices who are performing well in their apprenticeship are selected to participate in the next enrichment day. 

Our most recent was held at the Thruxton racetrack, where our apprentices were given the opportunity to work alongside the British Truck Racing Association carrying out safety inspections in the Paddock prior to racing. They also received tickets to be able to watch the weekends races that they had helped prepare for. 

Our LCV Apprentice Emily found the enrichment day a worthwhile and enjoyable experience - "I recently took part in an apprentice enrichment day at Thruxton racetrack, where I was given the opportunity to work alongside the British Truck Racing Association and carried out safety inspections in the paddock ahead of the weekend’s races. I thoroughly enjoyed the experience and had a great time.”

Other apprentice enrichment days have been held at Snetterton, Brandshatch and Donnington Racetrack working alongside the British Truck Racing Association.  

A brief trip to Germany - as part of our apprentices completing their studies, they were given the opportunity to visit the Mercedes-Benz factory in Germany.

The apprentices arrived at the Mercedes-Benz Truck plant in Woerth bright and early, ready to find out more about the plants processes and the vehicles they had been working on as part of their apprenticeship.

The visit to the plant started with the apprentices being given the opportunity to meet with the market support team and a number of team members who look after the Mercedes-Benz heavy trucks across the globe! 

As part of the experience, our apprentices were given several production line tours. One show casing the “A line” vehicles and the other showing the Unimog, Zetros and Econic vehicles. Both of our apprentices who attended found this an insightful and worthwhile part of the tour "I really enjoyed the A-line factory tour which gave me a great insight into trucks being made from the beginning to the end, this included everything from the building of the cab, engine, chassis and axles. Overall I found the trip very worthwhile a good experience."  Richard Harris 

On the second day of the trip, the apprentices visited the Mercedes-Benz Development and Evaluation centre. While At the centre they met an Xentry Diagnosis colleague, who was currently in the process of writing some fault codes and guided tests. This supported their studies and gave them a further insight in to fault diagnosis and the type of tests run by Mercedes-Benz.

The final part of the tour took place at the investigation centre, where the apprentices were shown several failed parts and given detailed information regarding failures and reports. “This was a very interesting morning and opened our eyes to how thoroughly the parts are inspected and tested” Arren Butler

Both apprentices who attended thoroughly enjoyed the experience and enjoyed speaking with the Mercedes-Benz Truck employees about the vehicles, parts and accessories they had been working on during their apprenticeship “I really enjoyed seeing the production line and speaking with all the employees. I found it an enjoyable trip and very interesting"  Mary Tappenden