Rolls-Royce Car Sales Set Record, Spawn Apprentice Openings

Rolls-Royce car sales can be tracked throughout the maker’s 115 years of making luxury vehicles. 2018 saw their best sales year ever. This was without their first SUV, the Cullinan, even being available at Rolls-Royce dealerships until the latter half of the year. Every Rolls-Royce features painstaking detail handcrafted by artisans who spend years honing their craft under apprenticeships. Needless to say a record year creates a need for more Rolls-Royce apprentices.

What’s the new record?

In total, 4,107 Rolls-Royce cars were sold in 2018. This is because of Rolls-Royce’s unparalleled handcrafted and bespoke elements. You expect a suit supply store to sell dozens or hundreds of $200 suits in a day. You expect a world famous, bespoke tailor with decades of experience and elite clientele to take weeks on a handmade, $60,000 suit. The same logic applies here.

Why hire instead of automate?

The Rolls-Royce team is based in Goodwood, West Sussex, in the United Kingdom. Now, it would be easy for them to fulfill high demand by simply switching over to more automation and less customization. Yet that’s not what makes a Rolls-Royce a Rolls-Royce, is it? A Rolls-Royce car is desirable precisely because of the unequaled luxury of elements handcrafted by trained artists and experts. Rolls-Royce dealerships send orders in for vehicles that are customized down to every stitch.

What apprenticeships are available?

The expertise to achieve this level of exacting detail takes years of training. Goodwood employs apprenticeships so that the engineering, design, and handcrafting experts of the future can all learn under the best in the business today. This year, they’re offering a record 31 apprenticeships.

This includes a new group of apprenticeships called the Sir Ralph Robins Degree Apprenticeships. Sir Robin’s has had a long career in engineering, and his vision has helped Rolls-Royce stay several steps ahead of any other luxury maker. These apprentices will study Mechanical Engineering at the University of Chichester, earning degrees at their Engineering and Digital Technology Park.

What does a Rolls-Royce apprenticeship entail?

Rolls-Royce apprenticeships can last up to four years. They include nationally recognized college and university courses, as well as on-site, on-the-job training at Rolls-Royce Motor Cars in Goodwood. New apprentices would join in August 2019, with the opportunity to fully join Rolls-Royce at the conclusion of their apprenticeship.

Many of yesterday’s apprentices now help direct the luxury auto maker’s future from positions of leadership. Those roles will one day be available to this year’s apprentices.