THE North East Ambulance Service has unveiled six new apprentices.

Paula Nanson, Kyle Peebles, Chris Armstrong, Sam Miller, Adam Wallis and Jay Young have started in the NEAS NHS Trust’s Patient Transport Service (PTS), which employs around 450 staff and took more than 550,000 patients to and from hospital appointments across the North-East over the last year.

They will spend the next year in a customer service role working with experienced PTS staff, transporting patients with varying needs, completing inter hospital transfers, hospital discharges and palliative care transport.

The NEAS apprenticeship scheme is run in conjunction with Northumberland College, with students spending 90 per cent of their time gaining on the job experience and 10 per cent of their time in the classroom.

PTS apprentices gain an NVQ Level 2 in customer service and are given the opportunity to apply for permanent roles within the trust when they complete their apprenticeship.

Since 2012, NEAS has trained 45 PTS apprentices. Out of those, 44 have completed their apprenticeship and are still working for the trust today.

They come from all walks of life and range in age from 18 up to 34. Our latest recruits are aged between 18 and 28.

Kyle, aged 18, from Gateshead, can’t wait to start his career in the PTS.

He said: “My dad’s a care worker and the more I talked to him about his job, and seeing how much pride he takes in what he does, the more I got interested.”

For more information visit neas.nhs.uk/careers