A GARAGE in Westbury have launched a youth development scheme to encourage young people to build a career in mechanics and engineering.

KP garage and body shop, based in Station Road, Westbury have teamed up with national charity UK Youth to see ten chosen young people aged between 14 and 18 design and build a BMW car over the next six months.

The car, a one-off BMW 330Ci M, will be displayed at the Forge Action Day motoring event at Castle Combe in September.

After the show, the car will be auctioned, with proceeds split equally between funding the next project and UK Youth.

The owners of KP garage, Dave Keay and Luke Pinnell, have over 27 years experience in the motor trade as fully qualified motor industry professionals and share a real passion for cars, which they hope to share with young people over the project

Mr Keay said: “The aim of our project is to keep today’s young people off the streets whilst teaching them about the mechanical and body shop side of cars.

“We want to get them using their imaginations by helping us design and build a unique vehicle that we can take to shows and showcase their and KP Garage and Bodyshop‘s abilities whilst giving them something to be proud of.

“They are also learning valuable skills that may lead to future employment in the trade”.

A social media campaign to find applicants was started before Christmas, and showed that there was no shortage in interest for the 10 places on the project.

At the launch, participants spoke about how they hope to break into the industry.

Callum Farthing from Warminster said: “I heard about the project through one of my mum’s friends who saw it on Facebook.

"So far the project has been really good, we’ve had a lot of laughs and are figuring out ideas for the car.

"I would like to get into the motor trade and have applied to go to Trowbridge College to do a mechanics course”

Quinn Rice, also from Warminster, said: “I heard about the project through a poster at school, I told my parents I had to do this.

"I’ve always been interested in electronics and car mechanics are quite similar.

"For a career I would like to be a mechanic or robotic engineer.”