Apprentice numbers surge in Greater Manchester

THE number of apprentices in Greater Manchester has increased by 141% to more than 30,000 people in the last five years.

That’s according to the New Economy think tank which has looked into apprenticeships and found that many taking up the positions are aged 30-50, rather than school leavers.

New Economy said the number of apprentices over 25 has increased by 446% since 2008-9, and there has been an increasing number of female applicants.

Apprentices in Greater Manchester account for 2.6% of all employees, above the national figure of 2.2%.

The research was carried out for New Economy’s Manchester Monitor which also shows fewer than 47,000 people were claiming Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA) in August 2014 – a decrease of 2,700 (5.5%) when compared with the figure for July.

Hotel occupancy rates in the city centre were 78.3% in August 2014, up 1.5% on the same month last year and Manchester Airport handled more than 2.4 million passengers in July, up 6.1% or 138,500 people on a year ago. Month-on-month passenger numbers also grew, up from 2.25 million in June, a rise of 7.2%.

Stephen Overell, principal for employment and skills, said: “The economy is making strong progress on many different fronts, with hotel occupancy now exceeding pre-recession rates and Manchester Airport experiencing its busiest ever year.

“The ongoing year-on-year drop in Jobseeker’s Allowance claimants is also encouraging, although the impact of Universal Credit on these figures should be taken into account.

“Apprenticeships are growing in popularity and the recent speeches by party leaders suggest they are set to expand much further in the years ahead. However, apprentices are changing. Although the stereotype is of young men wielding spanners and wearing hard hats, women in care, customer service and administrative roles who are over 25 years old can justifiably claim to be the typical apprentice.”