---
title: "The Michelin four-year training programme"
description: "A progressive apprenticeship model that Caudwell credits for his outlook on business and wellbeing."
canonical: https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/love-pain-and-money/the-michelin-four-year-training-programme/
updated: 2026-11-03
---

# The Michelin four-year training programme

> A progressive apprenticeship model that Caudwell credits for his outlook on business and wellbeing.

John Caudwell's framework, from Love, Pain & Money, pp. 89 to 95.

Framework 1 of 7 from [Love, Pain & Money](https://tomsharman.com/bookshelf/love-pain-and-money/index.md) by John Caudwell. Category: Life and thinking.

## The steps

1. **Work.** Trainees spend 32 hours a week at the tyre company.
2. **College.** Trainees spend 15 hours a week at college, where they can also study a language and sit technical exams.
3. **Physical education.** Twice-weekly physical education is compulsory.
4. **Placement.** Trainees are sent to help out in local psychiatric hospitals, such as Stallington Hall in Stoke.

## Where it comes from

From chapter: Chapter 10_BUMP, pp. 89–95

Rebekah is born after a frightening forceps delivery, and Caudwell goes straight back to work. A health visitor tells him Kate has a serious infection and postnatal depression and he realises he had missed it. His Michelin boss signs him off on compassionate leave, and he credits Michelin's four year training, which included psychiatric hospital placements, for teaching him that mental illness should carry no stigma. Unable to leave the car business to Brian, he takes Kate and the baby to auctions, a temporary fix that ended when a snowstorm broke down a car she was driving home.

## The animation

24 seconds, 4:5, no sound.

- MP4: https://tomsharman-downloads-006143767029.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/downloads/bookshelf/love-pain-and-money/the-michelin-four-year-training-programme.mp4
- MP4, dark: https://tomsharman-downloads-006143767029.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/downloads/bookshelf/love-pain-and-money/the-michelin-four-year-training-programme-dark.mp4
- Still: https://tomsharman-downloads-006143767029.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/downloads/bookshelf/love-pain-and-money/the-michelin-four-year-training-programme.png
- Still, dark: https://tomsharman-downloads-006143767029.s3.eu-north-1.amazonaws.com/downloads/bookshelf/love-pain-and-money/the-michelin-four-year-training-programme-dark.png