Contractors bidding to work for Surrey County Council are being asked to hire apprentices in an effort to combat the high number of young people currently not in education, employment or training.
The move comes only weeks after the local authority pledged to create a £3,000 pot to fund apprenticeship places at small-to-medium enterprises for 200 young people across the county.
According to local newspaper Surrey News, the council’s leader, David Hodge, promised to provide each company with a £1,500 grant, which would match the government’s existing Apprenticeship Grant for Business.
“That would make a total of £3,000, which will go a long way to enabling businesses to take on apprentices, as well as making sure that they get the right skills for the job,” Hodge said.
The Council also vowed to take on 100 apprentices of its own in March, some one in five of which it pledged would be children in care.
It has likewise unveiled plans to set up a network of skill centres, some 20 of which will be run from the authority’s youth centres. The aim is to help young people who are classed as NEETs learn the basic skills they require to find work, secure a further education place or take up an apprenticeship.
According to Elmbridge Today, bids are currently being invited from colleges and training firms in order to start running classes at youth centres from the autumn.
The number of young people classed as NEETS in Surrey is less than four in every 100 compared to a national average of about six in 100.
