Wolverhampton apprenticeship drive boosted by JLR

WOLVERHAMPTON City Council has seen a 62% rise in the number of young people in the city taking on apprentices. The council said the figure had been inflated by young people wanting to work for prosperous and successful companies such as Jaguar Land Rover.

JLR has announced its intention to recruit a record 133 apprentices this year, many of which will find their way to the firm’s new £355m engine plant, which is being built on the i54 site, north of the city.

Cllr Phil Page the cabinet member for Schools, Skills and Learning, said: “There’s been a 62% rise in the number of people taking apprenticeships in the city thanks to our renewed efforts to promote this route to skills.

“As well as working actively with such major global brands like Jaguar Land Rover, we’re also developing a range of opportunities for young people to develop the skills they need, including apprenticeships with the council itself.”

The city council is providing 110 apprenticeships over the next three years, with the first 15 starting this month.  They will take on a range of roles for the authority, from electricians and plumbers to vehicle and horticultural maintenance.   They will receive a wage as well as training and formal qualifications. 

Pertemps Group urges more firms to start apprenticeships

WEST MIDLANDS businesses have been urged by leading employment and training specialists to give some of the region’s thousands of young unemployed people a break by launching new apprenticeship schemes.

Birmingham-based Pertemps People Development Group (PPDG) said firms needed to consider launching apprenticeship schemes that would benefit their business and the wider community by providing a way out of unemployment for talented young people.

Chief executive Steve King said: “Times are very tough for businesses and unemployed people, particularly the young. That is why we are determined to get the message across that we can help businesses to design and deliver apprenticeship programmes regardless of the size of their company or the number of apprentices they are seeking. We promise that if they talk to us we can make a real difference to how their business recruits.”

PPDG is one of the UK’s leading employment specialists, successfully delivering Government-funded Welfare to Work initiatives for more than 13 years. It has helped more than 100,000 job seekers into sustained employment, trained over 130,000 people in vocational skills, and provided more than 175,000 with information, advice and guidance.

Apprenticeships provide four-star service at Solihull hotel

A SOLIHULL hotel’s decision to take on two apprentices for the first time has proved so successful it is to make the recruitment process standard policy.
 
Teenagers Maxine Owen and Sophie Allen, left, have both landed permanent roles at the four-star St John’s Hotel on the Warwick Road, with 17-year-old Sophie being appointed PA to general manager Tony Hill.
 
They took up their 12-month apprenticeships – Maxine in the human resources department and Sophie in sales and marketing – in December 2010.
 
Mr Hill said: “It was an opportunity for us to help young people get into work, but we did it on a trial basis – we’d not done it before.

“We were keen to work with the local community and we also wanted to bring in young people we could train from scratch, as it were, and help to flourish so as to give them a real career. That can be a bit of pipe dream sometimes, but when it works, it’s brilliant.”
 
The recruitment strategy has been backed by business resource organisation Solihull for Success.
 
“We are now looking to take on more apprentices; there are opportunities in customers services, food and beverage and reception,” added Mr Hill.