The Aspire Group has announced it will create around 100 more housing and construction apprenticeships every year, after the official opening of a new £500,000 training centre.
The housing group owns and manages around 9,000 properties across north Staffordshire and the new facility, in Brick Kiln Lane, Newcastle-Under-Lyme, represents further growth for its training arm,
PM Training.
The opening comes just three weeks after PM Training announced it was expanding into two other sites, in Leek and Stafford. PM will now operate from four sites across the region, providing training and employment opportunities for more than 1,350 people in the coming year.
The new Brick Kiln Lane centre was unveiled on Thursday 8 December, when dozens of local youngsters were given a taster of the ‘hands-on’ construction and housing courses it will offer.
PM Training aims to tackle worklessness among young people by offering those with no qualifications an alternative route into employment.
Aspire Housing’s director of regeneration, Will Nixon, said: “Last year we created 1,200 training and employment opportunities across north Staffordshire and this centre will boost these numbers even further.
“The addition of a Newcastle-Under-Lyme centre, on top of our other sites, will enable us to tackle worklessness even more effectively.
“To be able to create another 100 apprenticeship places is a great boost to the area – especially during such a tough time economically – and this is exactly what PM Training, as a social enterprise, sets out to do.”
All surpluses made by PM Training, as a social enterprise, are reinvested into the community via The Aspire Group’s charitable arm, The Realise Foundation.
The Brick Kiln Lane redevelopment was supported by around £275,000 of European Regional Development Funding (ERDF) money.