Vertu Motors has announced the launch of a pioneering apprentice scheme offering the chance for participants to gain a free degree and the promise of an £18,000-a-year base salary.

Apprentices taken on the North-East based AM100 dealer group will graduate, debt-free, with a degree in BA degree in Business Leadership and Management Practice as part of a new partnership scheme with Northumbria University.

Vertu will pay £27,000 worth of tuition fees as part of the new scheme, announced by chief executive Robert Forrester in an interview with Newcastle’s Evening Chronicle newspaper.

Forrester said: “We’re very proud of our new programme. It’s an amazing opportunity for a young person and we look forward to receiving applications from across the country.

“We are always on the look-out for talented individuals who can help drive our business forward, and this programme will allow us to identify those people and help them develop into the business leaders of the future.”

Vertu is currently searching for potential future leaders at 12 locations across the UK, giving them the prospect of quickly progressing into managerial roles through the new apprentice scheme.

Successful applicants will work towards their BA degree while earning £18,000 and gaining valuable industry experience working as a customer service advisor with in the group’s franchised network.

Quoted in the Chronicle report, Sandie Dixon, Vertu’s head of recruitment and talent, described the new apprenticeship scheme as “a fantastic opportunity for enthusiastic school leavers to gain a respected degree debt-free”.

She added: “Vertu hopes to find talented young people to become managers of the future.”

For more details about the new apprenticeship scheme, click here to visit Vertu’s Service Advisor- Degree Apprentice microsite.