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Academy sees increase in apprenticeship interest

A Sheffield apprenticeship academy has seen an increase in the number of young people from across South Yorkshire looking to ‘earn while they learn’ after hosting a series of open days providing information about the popular alternative to higher education.

The school leavers’ events at the W Academy and Education boast a day full of activities and provide students and their parents an insight into what business administration, customer service, hospitality, hairdressing and barbering apprenticeships can offer.

And, with the Office of National Statistics latest report reporting nearly one million young people, aged 16-24, currently unemployed in the UK, the academy’s managing director says it is inevitable that many of the region’s teenagers will looking for an alternative way in to work.

Marc Wildes, W Academy’s managing director said: “We have hosted a number of open days now and have been extremely pleased by the response and the exceptional quality of the candidates attending.

“These are very tough economic times and competition for school leaver level jobs is fierce. With the increasing cost of higher education and the continued uncertainty about whether there is a graduate role at the end of it, apprenticeships, and the ‘earn while you learn’ approach is an increasingly popular option.”

Established in 2012, the academy has already provided more than 500 young people with employment in a myriad of successful business throughout Sheffield and South Yorkshire, and was rated ‘good’ or ’outstanding by 98% of both the learners and employers they work with.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by David Gatehouse .