Apprentices are in the headlines because they are key to the UK's efforts to improve skills and boost the economy but they are not a new idea. And neither are they simply a way of learning a trade. Chris Knox speaks to some of those who have risen to the top of their business after starting out as apprentices.

SINCE launching four weeks ago, The Journal’s 100 Apprentices in 100 Days Campaign has succeeded in helping to find positions for over 230 apprentices, with the new target now raised to 500 in 100 Days.

The success of the campaign illustrates how much importance the region’s employers are placing on the programme as a way of supporting the recovery of the economy as well as ensuring that important skills are not being lost along the way.

The system of apprenticeships was first developed in the Middle Ages and came to be supervised by craft guilds and town governments, with master craftsmen entitled to employ young people as an inexpensive form of labour in exchange for providing food, lodging and formal training in a craft.

Although apprenticeships have come along way since – the trainees now receive a wage for example – their long history has nevertheless helped to shape the careers of some of the region’s most senior high-flyers.

John Wayman, regional director at the National Apprenticeship Service, said: “Apprenticeships have helped to launch the careers of thousands of young people in the North East and offer real opportunities for progression.

“By gaining relevant work-related skills and nationally recognised qualifications in their areas of specialism, each apprentice is equipped to progress up the career ladder and to take higher level qualifications.

“Once apprentices get a foot in the door with an employer, they have an opportunity to shine and show them what they are capable of.”

Tim Lamb became full-time general manager of The Metrocentre in Gateshead, in April last year after spending more than five years as manager of Eldon Square in Newcastle.

However, it wasn’t in the retail industry that Lamb received his training and started his career as an apprentice in the parts department at Mill Garages in Sunderland at the age of 16. It was a move that he credits for helping him to secure one of the most senior jobs in retailing and for giving him an insight into what it takes to become part of a successful business.

The apprenticeship, which Lamb embarked on in 1977, included training in electrical engineering as well as business and management skills, and formed the bedrock of his 11-and-a-half year tenure at Mill Garages.

He said: “It’s safe to say I was a late developer in terms of education – my early school years were fantastically happy and my secondary school years were less so. I hadn’t enjoyed school, so I was always destined to enjoy work.

“Starting as an apprentice was a fantastic way of entering the world of work and really gave me a solid grounding in what it takes to be successful in business.

“Even though I’m working in a completely different sphere now, the training I received as part of my apprenticeship has allowed me to take on a number of senior roles with a greater degree of confidence than if I had followed the education route. These days, if you turn up 15 minutes late for a lecture, no-one would bat an eyelid. However, if you were 15 minutes late for work, your boss would let you know about it.

“It was these type of basic lessons that stuck with me from a young age and helped give me an advantage over my contemporaries.”

Lamb is so supportive of the apprenticeship programme that he has put his money where his mouth is and employed his own administration apprentice at the shopping centre, in the shape of 17-year old Courtney Thompson, who is based in Sunderland.

Lamb said: “It is the first apprentice that the shopping centre has taken on in a long time and illustrates how passionate we are about fostering young talent in the region.

“As an employer it is important to attract people that actually want to follow a particular career path rather than someone who is applying for roles at random.”