A HOST of North-East employers have launched schemes for new trainees to coincide with National Apprenticeship Week.

Northgate Vehicle Hire, which has its head office in Darlington and branches in Stockton, Wilton, near Redcar, North Shields and Blaydon, plans to open seven branches in the next three months and will be taking on 24 new apprentices across its network, highlighting the value it places upon developing employees’ skills.

Supermarket chain Aldi is looking to recruit about nine apprentices across County Durham for its stores in Bishop Auckland, Chester-Le-Street, Consett, Hartlepool, and Seaham he Aldi Apprenticeship Scheme.

Gateshead-based data centre expert ITPS is continuing its commitment to young talent by increasing its apprenticeship pool.

The firm has been committed to training young people since it was founded in 2000, firstly through the YTS scheme and subsequently through apprenticeships, and its in-house scheme has helped more than 36 young people kick start a career in IT.

First year apprentice Phill Housego, said: “Although I left college with a BTec Level 3 diploma in networking and systems support, my lack of experience made it impossible to find a job so I was delighted to be offered a two-year apprenticeship place.

“I’m working as a first line support engineer, shadowing colleagues on the help desk. Every day brings new challenges and eight months into the programme I’m really enjoying it."

Major employers including BT and EE are taking on more apprentices across the region.

And British Gas, which is training 1,200 apprentices across the UK, is urging more girls to consider an apprenticeship. The company said in 2014 only four per cent of applicants for its competitive technical and engineering apprenticeship schemes were female.

As part of the drive to highlight the need for more high quality schemes

The Right Revd, Paul Butler, Bishop of Durham, signed up for an NECC apprenticeship.

Bishop Paul took on the role of engineering apprentice for the day with IK-UK, of Newton Aycliffe, where he tried his hand with the water jet and plasma cutting machines, manufacturing base plates on a lathe and assembling pipeline “pigs”.

The “pigs” in question are designed and manufactured by IK-UK, which employs 47 people, including four NECC apprentices. These purpose-built pieces of equipment are made from polyurethane and steel and used primarily in the oil and gas industry to clean pipelines.

“When I was offered the chance of an apprenticeship by James Ramsbotham (NECC Chief Executive), I was very keen to try something in engineering,” said Bishop Paul. “It is a genuine North East industrial strength and something I have always held an interest in, so to have the chance to try my hand at it was an opportunity I could not refuse.

“What I will take away from this experience is what an impressive bunch the apprentices are. Given how they are all at such a relatively early stage of their apprenticeship, all have demonstrated a real in-depth knowledge of their various jobs and cope admirably with quite a high level of responsibility.”

As a surprise, the IK-UK apprentices programmed the water jet cutting machine to carve an image of Durham Cathedral in copper plate and also presented the Bishop with a Rose Window coaster and a “pig” that the he had assembled himself.

National Apprenticeship Week, a government-backed celebration of workplace training schemes, runs until Friday.