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Yorks firms need aid to keep apprentices
YORKSHIRE firms need more help to keep their apprentices in employment during the recession.
Tens of thousands of new apprentices are expected to be needed to learn the skills of workers due to retire in the next decade.
The vice president of a Yorkshire-based packaging specialist has called on the government to follow Scotland's lead in developing innovative ways to help employers maintain their apprenticeship programmes until recovery takes place.
Chris Horton is director and vice president of plastics manufacturing firm LINPAC Packaging, which employs 500 people in West Yorkshire.
He also chairs the national board of the National Skills Academy Process Industries, which is part of a UK-wide network of employer-led academies set up to address skills issues in crucial sectors.
The academy works alongside chemicals, polymers and pharmaceutical employers, helping them strengthen staff training and development programmes.
Experts predict that the process industries, which turn over 22 million per day in the Yorkshire region and employ around 34,000 people across Yorkshire and the Humber, need 24,000 apprentices to fill the gap which will be left by older workers who retire in the next decade.
Mr Horton says two schemes run by the Scottish Government are examples of how the problem could be tackled.
Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond recently announced a 'two for the price of one' scheme for life science employers, pledging that the government would meet the full salary costs of the second apprentice.
Scottish employers also benefit from a new 'adopt an apprentice' scheme, through whichthey are paid 2,000 to recruit a redundant apprentice.
Mr Horton said: "There are more than 11,000 employers in the process industries – 1,200 of them in the Yorkshire region, and many of them are struggling to maintain apprenticeship levels through the current economic climate.
"We now need some action, and we need it fast if this significant economic sector is to make its full contribution to the eventual upturn.
We urge Ministers to follow Scotland's lead and apply some innovative thinking to come up with a fast and practical response to the problem of attracting and retaining the young talent our industries need."
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