Council and ENGIE partnership leads to apprenticeship boost

'‹A partnership between Wakefield Council and ENGIE is helping to boost employment opportunities with apprenticeships for local people.

As part of the agreement a commitment was made to help to secure local jobs for local people and enable staff, customers and services to benefit from private sector expertise and investment.

Coun Peter Box CBE, the Leader of Wakefield Council met 10 apprentices who are working for ENGIE in the district, many of whom were employed as part of the new contract.

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He said: “I am pleased this partnership is helping to create opportunities for local, young people to learn and develop new skills to help them in their future careers.

“Apprenticeships are a great route into work, as they offer people opportunities to learn and develop skills that will help them throughout their working lives.”

The partnership began in October with the leading energy and services company, to deliver facilities management services to Wakefield including property and estate management, building repairs and maintenance to schools and corporate buildings, schools catering and cleaning, logistics, energy and utility management and buildings health and safety.

Mike Hedges, Partnership Director of the ENGIE Wakefield Contract, said: “We have great ambitions within the Partnership to make a real and lasting positive impact upon the communities that we serve. One of our commitments is towards the development of young people through our apprenticeship scheme and I am delighted to support these apprentices taking their first steps in their working lives with us.”

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As part of the contract with the council, over 700 staff transferred to ENGIE.

The company has guaranteed to invest £1.5m in staff training, create 130 apprenticeships and 500 days of work experience.

It is also setting up a social enterprise to deliver employment and training to the disabled community and ensuring that 60% of procurement is with local SME companies.

The new partnership is expected to deliver savings for the Council through a more efficient and commercial approach.