Pictured above: Sarah Hills, Apprenticeship Team
Manager at Positive Outcomes
According to training and work-based apprenticeships company
Positive Outcomes, each week, dozens of East Midlands businesses
are desperately seeking 16-18 year olds to take up vacancies for an
average of seventy apprenticeships each week.
"Apprenticeships and work-based learning schemes are a fantastic
way for 16-18 year olds to get a job, learn a skill, get
qualifications and earn a wage," says Positive Outcomes' managing
director Chris Longmate. "Despite the current climate, there are
more apprenticeship vacancies than learners at the moment."
The company's Apprenticeship Team Manager, Sarah Hills, adds:
"We work exclusively with some of the UK's largest and best known
private sector companies as well as a high percentage of public
sector organisations which use our unique dedicated Apprenticeship
team to find them 16-18 year olds looking to earn whilst they learn
a profession and skill, something this age group of school leavers
often miss out on simply because they are unaware of the fantastic
apprenticeship schemes open to them."
Local employers are looking for apprentices in a variety of
areas including business administration, customer service, retail,
and IT. "We know that many school leavers are very keen to work in
IT and our clients simply can't get enough IT apprentices. It is
definitely a big market opportunity for school leavers," she
says.
Positive Outcomes is in the Top 10 of independent providers of
government-funded training in the UK and has a combined turnover of
£8million for its recruitment and training operations. It has
been recognised for its high calibre apprenticeships and management
training, including year-on-year success in the Nottinghamshire
Training Awards since 2007, including its IT Coordinator being
crowned Overall Winner in the 2009 Awards.
Positive Outcomes' unique Apprenticeship team works towards
finding candidate apprentices for employers, and delivering
on-the-job NVQ work-based training to employees aged 16 and
upwards, and is one of only a few approved to deliver NVQ Level 5
Management training. Sarah explains: "Our staff work with the
learner to establish the type of sector and job they are looking
for and then with employers to match the right candidate to the
apprenticeship scheme.
"16-18 year olds can earn a minimum of £95 per week on the
government-funded apprenticeship, work-based training scheme, with
some clients often choosing to pay more."