Demand hugely outstrips supply of apprenticeships

IF the experiences of Sheffield Forgemasters and NG Bailey are anything to go by, Yorkshire’s top employers are being inundated with applications from young people.

Both companies are seeing rising competition for places on apprenticeship schemes, illustrating the gulf between the supply and demand for job opportunities.

Sheffield Forgemasters hires around 25 new apprentices a year for its three-year training programme. Last year, it received up to 300 applications to join the scheme.

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NG Bailey, the Ilkley-based construction services firm, had more than 3,200 applications for 50 places on its four-year apprenticeship scheme.

Peter Birtles, a group director at Sheffield Forgemasters, told the Yorkshire Post: “All the indications are that appetite for apprenticeships is considerably higher and is increasing rather than decreasing.”

The engineering firm makes heavy forged and cast steel products for the oil and gas, defence and nuclear industries and has sales of more than £100m a year.

It promotes its apprenticeship scheme in schools around the east end of Sheffield, a less affluent part of the old industrial city.

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Mr Birtles said the demand means the company can pick the very best applicants. “There are masses of kids around our area, an increasing number who are interested in getting into apprenticeships. There are so many good quality candidates. We are really pleased with the quality of applicants.”

At NG Bailey, a family-owned company with national operations, demand is very high.

Alison Ashworth-Brown, head of the company’s engineering academy in Leeds, said she is recruiting 50 apprentices this year from across the UK.

NG Bailey, which has sales of around £500m a year, hires according to the needs of its business. Last year, it recruited 30 apprentices and had 1,400 applications.

Ms Ashworth-Brown said higher university fees have led some young people to consider apprenticeships as an alternative.