Nissan creates 75 apprenticeships at Sunderland plant

Image caption, The Juke is Nissan's 12th car to be built in Sunderland

Nissan is creating 75 apprenticeships at its Sunderland factory over the next five years.

The announcement was made as further education and skills minister John Hayes visited the plant to see the new Juke being produced.

Juke is the 12th new model to be made at the factory in the past eight years and follows the Qashqai crossover vehicle launched three years ago.

Nissan shed 1,200 jobs in Sunderland last year due to the global downturn.

Mr Hayes said: "The Government is totally committed to supporting British manufacturing.

"Manufacturing matters, and because manufacturing matters so much, engineering matters, skills matter and apprenticeships matter."

A year after the 1,200 jobs were shed, Nissan took back 400 staff to work on the Qashqai, taking the plant's workforce to 4,200.

The Juke, which was created in the UK and Japan, will go on sale in the UK in October.