Over the past 3 years we have taken on an average of 25 apprentices each year, with opportunities including construction, horticulture, catering, highway maintenance, business administration, customer service and supporting teaching.

Our apprenticeships are recognised as being some of the best in the country; our apprentices have received a number of national awards, including the National Apprentice of the Year from the Association for Public Service Excellence (APSE) and Direct Works Forum Annual Apprenticeship Award.

The scheme has been running for over 25 years and supports the local economy, provides residents with new opportunities and helps the council to develop a workforce for the future.

As an employee, you can earn as you learn and you gain practical skills from the workplace. Find out more about the benefits of Apprenticeships here:

• Apprenticeships: Apprentices (external link)

An apprenticeship not only provides the qualifications needed for a specific trade it also provides access to the work skills needed in any career. There is no limit to how much an apprentice can achieve or how much they could earn in the future.

Many senior members of staff at the council started out as apprentices.

Joanne Bartholomew is Assistant Director for Physical Resources and Procurement. She started out as an apprentice onto an exciting and successful career. Check out the video of what Joanne has to say about how being an apprentice helped her.

Mark Freeth was an apprentice with Kirklees Council and is now Head of Building Services where 8 of this years apprentices will be based. He talks about becoming and apprentice and the impact on his career in this video. Apprenticeships are an excellent way to gain a qualification and workplace experience.

Apprenticeships can help businesses across all industries by offering a route to harness fresh talent. If you have trained staff with the right skills for the job they can do a wider range of tasks and take on new responsibilities - this can help to reduce skill shortages, minimise staff turnover and workplace accidents, and increase productivity.

In January 2013 it was announced that Kirklees is to be part of the Government's Apprenticeship Hub programme, which will see £4.6m pumped into small and medium businesses in the Leeds City Region Partnership to boost apprenticeships by 2015. Up to 2,500 additional apprenticeships will be created across the City Region, mostly with small and medium enterprises and two new Apprentice Training Agencies will be created. More details will be added to this page shortly, in the meantime you can read the original press release here.

If you are based in Kirklees and want to recruit apprentices, call Sue Weston on 01484 221547 or email skills@kirklees.gov.uk

More details about the benefits and details of taking on apprentices:

• Apprenticeships: Employers (external link)