APPRENTICESHIPS are rocketing across Worcestershire - with a staggering 118 per cent increase in just one year.

The number of young people getting onto the schemes surged to 5,670 last year, compared to 2,590 in 2011.

Worcestershire’s Local Enterprise Partnership, the body responsible for promoting the county as a place to do business, now says it expects the figure to climb to 7,000 by the end of this year.

It follows your Worcester News 100 in 100 campaign, which called upon 100 companies to take on 100 eager apprentices and help boost young people’s lives.

Last year’s campaign smashed all predictions, with 214 people finding work with 145 different employers.

The new findings have been hailed by businesses, who say they find taking on apprentices is working for their organisations.

Hamish Gill, who runs F8 Creates, a design and branding company in St Mary’s Street, Worcester, said: “We’ve got five of us working here and two of them are apprentices - I cannot emphasise enough how good they are.

“I would say to any other employer, just do it.

Because apprentices earn much less than other people they are so hungry to learn and their motivations are so much better.

“The process of teaching them has been very valuable for us and the guys have been like a sponge - they are invaluable.”

Alex Redman, aged 19, from Upton-upon-Severn, an apprentice web developer at F8, said: “I started my A Levels at Hanley Castle High but dropped out halfway through my second year.

“I took a gamble really but it’s been fantastic. I’ve been here three months and this is just what I want to do.”

Hannah Astbury-Jones, aged 19, from Worcester, is an IT apprentice at Sanctuary Group in Chamber Court and has already been told she will be taken on permanently in June.

She said: “I’ve grown in confidence and am a completely different person - I’m treated as an equal at Sanctuary and have the same work opportunities as everyone else.”

It comes as new figures for March revealed a fall in youth unemployment across Worcestershire by 65.

A total of 2,965 18-24 year-olds were claiming jobseeker’s allowance last month. Worcester City Council and the College of Technology teamed up in 2011 to offer £1,000 grants to small companies taking on apprentices.

Councillor Marc Bayliss, deputy leader and the cabinet member for economic prosperity, said: “We’ve played our part by offering the grants and taking on six new apprentices ourselves, and we intend to do more.

“It’s a winner for the firms involved and the individuals.”

Carl Arntzen, chairman of the Worcestershire LEP’s employment and skills board and managing director of Bosch Thermotechnology, part of Worcester Bosch, said: “I’m delighted to see such a strong focus here in Worcestershire on re-establishing apprenticeships.”