Apprentices learn while they earn.

(From The Northern Echo)

Byline: Owen McAteer

As National Apprenticeship Week gets under way, a new Government-backed company has been launched in the North-East to encourage more firms to take young people on. Business Editor Owen McAteer looks at what is being done to get young people into training SPENDING the morning building a regard panel, a device which detects gas, is definitely not all in a typical day's work for James Ramsbotham the chief executive of the Durham City based North East Chamber of Commerce (NECC).

His skills are normally applied to addressing meetings and gatherings while he represents his organisation's 4,000 member companies.

But yesterday, as he became an apprentice to 18-year-old Jack Glendinning, Mr Ramsbotham was in no doubt he was learning something important.

He said: "I'm always standing on various stages and talking about the advantages that apprentices bring, so it's good to spend a bit of time actually being one.

It helps me understand more." The importance of finding jobs and training for young people has become a key issue, with total youth unemployment at a 15-year high of nearly 943,000 - about one in …