The attendees, including students aged 14-16, were given presentations on the apprenticeship scheme available at Honda UK and treated to a tour of the institute, which featured an array of motorbikes, cars and engines.

Honda UK currently has over 200 apprentices and has trained over 1,000 apprentices since 2001. Each year there are around 100 new positions met with over 2,500 applications for the three-year course.

Paul Taylor, technical operations manager at the Honda Institute, oversees the national apprenticeship programme and spoke at the SIM open day. “It is important that we convince young people that manufacturing is not dingy and dirty. It is a very advanced industry,” he said.

The success of every SIM open day will be captured though evaluations forms filled out by the students, teachers and career advisors.

Fiona Cole, Honda UK corporate communications manager, said that manufacturers have been encouraged to keep their events fairly local so that the SIM scheme can achieve national spread through regional events.

“A lot of the schools were local and here today because of existing relationships through our ‘School of Dreams’ programme. The SIM open day is to support the SMMT and BIS but we will continue to keep up our own relationships with our schools,” she said.

The Honda ‘School of Dreams’ programme is a two-day workshop designed to help young people understand the importance of pursuing their dreams, and teaches skills and strategies to help them achieve their ambitions.

Over 20 automotive companies are taking part in the 2012 SIM initiative, which is also taking place in the food and drink and aerospace sectors.