Kwik Fit has come under fire from the National Union of Students (NUS) for running unpaid traineeships of up to 936 hours across five months.

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An investigation by FE Week found the car servicing firm advertising “multiple” 16 to 18 vacancies “nationwide” on the government’s National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) website.

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But the advert, which said trainees would do a “maximum of 39 hours a week Tuesday to Saturday” for up to 24 weeks, was removed this afternoon after FE Week started looking into the posts.

However, it reappeared just hours later with an added line saying simply “most weeks will be less”.

“Expecting young people to be unpaid in a traineeship of up to 39 hours a week for a five-month period is unacceptable,” said NUS vice president for FE Joe Vinson.

“Unfortunately, it’s likely that this is just one example of the many organisations across all industries.”

A spokesperson for Kwik Fit, which had a turnover of nearly £640m for the year ending March 2012, defended its traineeship scheme. Read full article…