Peel Ports is launching its apprenticeship programme ahead of the opening of the £300m Liverpool2 deep-water container terminal later this year.

The company says it wants to take on 50 apprentices over the next five years covering all its ports in Liverpool, Manchester, Dublin, Glasgow, Sheerness and Heysham.

Peel is kicking off the programme in Liverpool where it will take on the first five trainees.

All the apprentices will have the opportunity to work at all the locations across the UK.

The scheme has taken a year to develop and those selection will go through a structured development programme which can lead up to HND/degree level.

By offering new apprentices the opportunity to work at multiple sites around the UK, Peel aims to give recruits an insight into the size and scale of the business and the importance of the ports working together to create a lean supply chain.

Currently it employs 41 apprentices across its UK and Ireland ports and terminals. The five new recruits will take the total to 46, including 29 at Liverpool.

Those based on the Mersey will be part of a 500-strong workforce that will eventually be employed at Liverpool2, which will be equipped to handle most of the world’s biggest ships.

Just weeks ago, the ECHO revealed that Peel was advertising for the first 75 of these jobs.

Howard Sloane, group HR director of Peel Ports, said: “We believe the apprentices of today can go on to become our future leaders of tomorrow and the investments we’ve made in this apprenticeship programme are indicative of this.

“Our commitments to stimulating employment opportunities, across the UK and Ireland and within the Merseyside region, as well as the ports industry as a whole has never been stronger."

source: Liverpool Echo