Cllr Chitty and apprentice Nigel Wren

Employ Medway Advice Centre secures Nigel Wren a job

If there is an area which is seeing positive signs across Medway right now it is that of apprenticeships.

Seen as a key driver to help a swathe of youngsters more vocationally focused than academic, it has played a key role in the council’s Employ Medway Advice Centre helping its 600th jobseeker back into employment.

Nigel Wren, 23, from Strood, had been out of work for nearly four years, but after attending the advice centre in Chatham High Street in October, has now been recruited as an apprentice bricklayer on the Rochester Riverside housing development, working for Ownen Contractors.

The apprenticeship will last two years during which he will be based on site and spend one day a week studying a diploma and NVQ in bricklaying at Mid Kent College, Maidstone.

Mr Wren said: “This has given me a real chance to get on in life.”

The contractors will gain a £2,000 subsidy towards Mr Wren’s training costs as part of the council’s apprenticeship subsidy scheme, GAPs.

Funding for the £200,000 scheme, which launched last October and helps businesses with an apprentice’s wage or training costs, is split equally between Medway Council and the Interreg 2 Seas programme which is part funded by the European Regional Development Fund.

The council’s apprenticeship schemes have also seen more than 250 apprenticeships created at local businesses over the past year, through both the subsidy scheme and the national 100 in 100 apprenticeship campaign, which created more than 190 trainee positions.

Employ Medway Advice Centre has been open since September 2009, and as well as helping jobseekers, has also provided more than 800 people with training on basic IT, interview and CV skills.