Transport for London and its contractors are to recruit hundreds of new apprentices over the next year, many of whom will be trained in highways and engineering.
Some 650 adult and 115 young apprentices will be hired by TfL and its supply chain, as part of the mayor of London’s economic recovery plan.
A TfL spokesman said: ‘The aim is to provide skills, training and development through giving our apprentices the opportunity to be involved in the everyday management of the public transport network, and in some of the biggest and most exciting transport scheme in the country.’
Of the 115 young apprentices, 65 will be covered within TfL’s supply chain in areas relating to engineering, including traffic management and control and highways maintenance. TfL Streets will recruit five civil engineering apprentices, while the remainder will be trained within London Underground.
Around 200 of the adult apprentices will be trained within the TfL supply chain, in areas such as maintenance and facilities management.
The GLA Group, which is overseeing the 3,000 total apprenticeships over the next three years, is also working with existing and potential suppliers to encourage them to create apprenticeship schemes.
Mayor Boris Johnson said: ‘At the GLA, we are pushing forward by expanding current programmes and creating new ones, and I urge employers from across London’s sectors to follow our lead and seek the wealth of advice and support that is out there.’
A drive by Johnson to deliver £2.4bn in efficiencies is expected to result in the removal of ‘hundreds of jobs’. But TfL’s new skills and employment strategy outlines a need for the total non-manual, full-time employee headcount to continue to increase, from around 8,200 this year to 9,000 by 2010/11, then held at this level until at least 2013 (Surveyor, 15 January 2009).
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