5:55 am, April 25, 2012
MORE than 35,000 candidates have applied for 1,000 new jobs to build the Range Rover Evoque and the Land Rover Freelander.
Jaguar Land Rover’s Halewood plant manufacturing facility received more than 6,000 registrations within 24 hours of the new jobs being announced by JLR in March.
After just one week that figure increased to 20,000 online registrations; the application process for the 1,000 new jobs has now closed.
The new positions, which will support the on-going significant global demand for the Range Rover Evoque and Land Rover Freelander 2, will take the workforce at Halewood to almost 4,500 – trebling the number employed there compared to three years ago – as the plant moves to three shifts and 24-hour production.
JLR HR director, Des Thurlby said: ‘JLR has a clear ambition for continued growth and we are delighted that so many people want to join us on that journey.
‘We are very pleased with the quality of candidates applying for these new roles and more than 100 applicants have already started with us. The scale of the response to our recruitment campaign reflects JLR’s growing reputation as an employer of choice in the north west.’
The new jobs at Halewood include production operators, supervisors and engineers. Reinforcing JLR’s commitment to expanding its skills base, all new employees joining the production line will receive training towards an Intermediate (Level 2) Apprenticeship.
During the previous, large scale recruitment campaign at Halewood in December 2010, more than 14,000 applications were received for 1,500 new jobs, as the factory ramped-up its operations to launch the new Range Rover Evoque, which began production in July 2011.
