Home > News

The National Apprenticeship Service (NAS), The Source and the National Skills Academy for Retail will provide up to 5,000 Apprenticeship Grants for Employers of 16 and 17 year olds (AGE 16 and 17) with a value of £2,500 to encourage employers to take on unemployed 16-17 year olds as apprentices.

The NAS are introducing a new Apprenticeship Grant: AGE 16 and 17, of £2,500 to enable employers to offer 5,000 new Apprenticeship places and take on an unemployed 16 or 17 year old apprentice immediately. The £2,500 grant is in addition to the costs of training which is met by the National Apprenticeship Service.

This initiative is available now until the end of March 2010 for employers who are able to offer a job opportunity to an unemployed young person aged 16 or 17.

Last year, despite tough labour market conditions, over 70,000 16 and 17 year olds started an Apprenticeship. Despite this there are still many more young people who want to learn whilst they are in work and we are determined to make sure that the opportunities are there for them to do so.

The scheme was launched to support employers to offer new and additional places in support of young people. Therefore this grant is aimed at those employers who would not otherwise have been in a position to recruit an apprentice at this point in time or who are able to offer more Apprenticeship places than they would otherwise have done.
We particularly want to support small and medium sized employers who are interested in employing an apprentice for this first time, or who want to employ an additional apprentice over their traditional level of recruitment.

The Source is supporting the NAS with this new scheme and offering their recruitment and training services to small to medium enterprises across South Yorkshire. If you would like to find out more about recruiting an Apprentice and receiving the £2,500 grant, contact Mike Denby at The Source on 0114 2635600.