Three young kitchen designers are soon to begin a dedicated course at Parker Building Supplies’ kitchens showrooms, with five new trainees also joining the company’s heavyside branches as a result of a Trade Federation Apprenticeship scheme link with Sussex Coast College, Hastings.

From September, the new recruits will be dividing their time between Sussex Coast College and Parker branches as part of ‘You’re Hired’, an apprenticeship scheme.

Georgina Angele, head of community at Love Local Jobs, introduced Parker Building Supplies and Sussex Coast College so that the organisations could devise a suitable training programme since ‘You’re Hired’ was launched in March.

Launched in March, the ‘You’re Hired’ training scheme aims to match 500 employers pledging to take on an apprentice with 500 work-ready young people.

The scheme is backed by East Sussex County Council, which is working in partnership with the National Apprenticeship Service, Association of Chambers, the Federation of Small Businesses, the Youth Employability Service and Apprenticeships in Sussex, as well as district and borough councils, training providers and colleges in the region.

Phil White, operations manager and training coordinator at Parker Building Supplies, said: “It’s so important to train the younger generation and we’ve now completed discussions with Sussex Coast College.

“We’re pleased that Dave Watson from the college has come up with an appropriate apprenticeship course for our young kitchen designers and we will also be discussing the possibility of gaining the college’s assistance in setting up an academy for prospective Parker Building Supplies staff to develop skill sets before they go on to work in our branches.”

Dave Watson, Sussex Coast College’s business development executive, added: “When I was approached by Phil, he was very clear as to what type of role he needed to fill. His frustrations had been that up until now no-one was able to offer a framework to fit this. We simply went back to the drawing board.

“Rather than sticking to what we knew from the courses we already offered, we explored what else was available. We were able to discover, and set-up, a new course which fitted the bill perfectly.”