The Yorkshire Evening Post has launched a campaign to help create thousands of new apprenticeships for our young people.
Leeds Works will ask businesses – particularly small and medium-sized firms - to create new apprenticeship schemes in a bid to help tackle chronic youth unemployment.
Only one in 10 employers in the Leeds City Region currently employs apprentices.
This is despite nearly 2,000 – about eight per cent – of youngsters aged 16 to 18 in Leeds not being in employment, education or training (Neets).
The level of Neets in Yorkshire is among the highest in the country, with one in five – or 137,000 – coming under the banner.
Our campaign will also highlight existing apprenticeship programmes AND it will showcase the success stories of apprentices in our region.
The launch coincides with the announcement that Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) has won £4.6 million of government funding to run initiatives to boost apprenticeships.
Neil McLean, chair of the Leeds City Region LEP, said a number of businesses within Leeds City Region are either unaware of the apprenticeship schemes available for their sector or feel that the system is overly bureaucratic and costly.
“We aim to change all that”, Mr McLean said. The LEP hopes to generate 2,500 additional apprenticeships by 2015.
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