In association with

Health benefits of training your own loyal workforce

Jan 11 2010 by Iain Laing, The Journal

THE North East Chamber of Commerce (NECC) is encouraging businesses in the region to recruit apprentices in an effort to boost the skills and productivity of their workforce in 2010.

Following the success of NECC’s 5-A-Day apprenticeship recruitment campaign last year, NECC’s director of training and skills development Patricia Wilkinson was keen to promote the benefits that apprentices can provide to businesses.

She said: “As well as improving a business’s skills level, a commitment to training is also likely to result in a loyal and more productive workforce and has been shown to make businesses significantly less likely to fail. As many as 70% of businesses are training staff to help buck the trend during this continued period of economic difficulty. Having a more efficient and better equipped workforce is imperative to improve the effectiveness and competitiveness of any business.”

NECC is taking further steps to promote the ‘health benefits’ that apprentices can bring to businesses in the run up to this year’s apprenticeships week, which starts on Monday February 1.