Apprenticeship programme hitting the heights for young people in Leeds

Over 500 apprenticeships in small and medium sized businesses have been created in Leeds since 2013, new figures have revealed.

This follows an innovative apprenticeship programme funded by the Leeds City Region Enterprise Partnership (LEP), which through the Leeds Apprenticeship Hub has been working closely with businesses in the city to encourage the recruitment of young talent in their company. From January 2013-March 2016, 512 apprenticeships were started for 16-24 year olds specifically in businesses who had not previously offered a training opportunity or employed an apprenticeship in the last 12 months. In total, 724 businesses were also engaged in Leeds over the first phase of the programme.

Due to the success of the programme across eight local apprenticeship hubs in the city region, which has all together seen 2,941 businesses supported and 2,367 apprenticeships created, the innovative project has now been extended until 30 October 2016.

To find out more how your business in Leeds or the city region could benefit from an apprenticeship through this project, please contact the Leeds Apprenticeship Hub on Facebook or Twitter, or on 0113 2475862.

For information on a wide range of apprenticeship opportunities in Leeds, please see: how to access opportunities in the city, please see: http://www.leeds.gov.uk/residents/Pages/Jobs.aspx

Councillor Mohammed Rafique, Leeds City Council’s executive member for employment, enterprise and opportunity said:

“We are working extremely hard with a range of partners to open up new and exciting apprenticeship opportunities in Leeds for our young people. It is extremely positive news therefore that this innovative programme by the LEP, which the council has helped to deliver through the Leeds Apprenticeship Hub, has created over 500 meaningful and paid apprenticeships for 18-24 year olds in small and medium sized businesses based in our city.

“With the scheme now extended until October this year, I hope that we will see more businesses having seen the success of the first phase of the programme wanting to get involved and see how taking on an apprentice can offer a wide range of great benefits to their company.”

Notes to editors:

The first phase of the LEP’s £4.6m apprenticeship programme is funded by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills via the Skills Funding Agency.

The Leeds City Region geography covers the 10 local authority areas of Barnsley, Bradford, Calderdale, Craven, Harrogate, Kirklees, Leeds, Selby, Wakefield and York. The programme included a central LEP team and eight local apprenticeship hubs in Barnsley, Bradford, Calderdale, Kirklees, Leeds, Wakefield, York and North Yorkshire (covering Craven, Harrogate and Selby). It also supported the operation of two Apprenticeship Training Agencies in Leeds and Bradford.

For media enquiries, please contact;

Colin Dickinson, Leeds City Council press office (0113) 39 51578

Email: colin.dickinson@leeds.gov.uk