By Victoria Brenan

Last updated at 11:53, Wednesday, 05 September 2012

Around 3,000 young people are out of work in Cumbria but one Carlisle recruitment company is struggling to fill apprenticeship places.

Moira Tattersall: ‘I don’t recognise the stereotype of young, lazy people’

RWP Training said it had 30 trainee vacancies available in a host of professions including hairdressing and childminding, but there had not been a single applicant.

Richard Polyblanc, chief executive, of RWP Training, said he believed the rural location of some of the vacancies was putting applicants off.

He said: “We’ve got a teaching assistant vacancy in Patterdale and getting young people to travel there is quite difficult.

“Also the wage is low and if you have travel costs on top of that it is questionable whether it is viable. But this can be overcome with people sharing lifts or having parents drop them off.

“We need to change the mindsets of young people so they can see the benefits. Apprenticeships last one possibly two years, so it is not a long time.”

He said the apprenticeships were “a basic stepping stone” to developing careers.

Nathan Dixon, 19, started a full-time job this week after starting an apprenticeship with the county council library service.

A year ago, he was living in a homeless hostel, drinking a bottle of cider a day and smoking 50 cigarettes.

He said he had been rejected from so many jobs, he “wasn’t even fit enough to serve burgers”.

After a chance meeting with a careers adviser, he applied for three apprenticeships with Cumbria County Council and was offered one with the library service in business administration.

Mr Dixon, from Maryport, began a full-time job with the council’s human resources department on Monday.

“This time last year I was alcohol dependant and smoking quite heavily and I thought ‘I need to change my life’,” he said.

“”I was speaking to a careers adviser and went online and saw three apprenticeships advertised with the county council. I applied for them all and, low and behold, I got it.

“This has drastically changed my life – I now have a regular working pattern and have kept the job in hand. I’m also due to start a new job.”

He now has his own flat and described his life as “focused and structured.”

He thinks many people are put off signing up to apprentice schemes because of the low pay, but said they needed to weigh up the pros and cons.

Moira Tattersall, principal at Carlisle College, lines students up with work placements and apprenticeships.

She refuted the allegation that young jobseekers were ‘lazy’ and work-shy.

“I’ve got a college full of very, very ambitious young people,” she said.

“They are committed, they want to invest in their future, so this stereotype of young lazy people is just not something I recognise.”

She said the college also worked with a lot of young people with ‘baggage’ and whose lives had been ‘interrupted by problems’.

Last year, Cumbria County Council launched a scheme to get 100 young people on apprenticeship schemes. Of those 100 new recruits, almost a half are due to finish their placements this year.

A spokesman for the council said: “An apprenticeship is a real job with training so you can earn while you learn and pick up recognised qualifications as you go.”

First published at 11:31, Wednesday, 05 September 2012
Published by http://www.cumberlandnews.co.uk