Approved on 27 October: young people in North Tyneside who miss out on an apprenticeship will be matched to the next one under a North East pilot worth up to £10m.
Young people in Whitley Bay and the rest of North Tyneside who are turned down for an apprenticeship should be put straight in front of other employers, under a regional “talent pool” that North East Mayor Kim McGuinness is setting up with up to £10 million of government money.
Updated 31 October: the authority’s cabinet approved the pilot on 27 October. The published decision also hands approval of the delivery plan, including how the £10m is spent, to the chief executive, in consultation with the cabinet member.
The North East Mayoral Strategic Authority, which covers North Tyneside along with Newcastle, Gateshead, South Tyneside, Sunderland, Northumberland and County Durham, says it has secured a place in a new Department for Work and Pensions apprenticeship brokerage programme. The money is spread over three years, and the target is 1,500 extra apprenticeship starts by March 2029, including at least 375 for young people who are not in education, employment or training.
The scheme went to the authority’s cabinet on Tuesday 27 October, at the Energy Central Learning Hub in Blyth. The agenda describes item 6 as a report seeking approval for the authority to become a pilot area, “subject to a successful DWP application”, and to approve how the service will be set up and run. The authority says the North East has been placed in the DWP’s second wave, due to launch in April 2027.
How the talent pool would work
The authority says that instead of talented applicants being turned away, the service will help young people who miss out on one opportunity connect quickly with other vacancies and training routes. It describes it as a “one stop shop” with:
- dedicated apprenticeship specialists;
- talent pools organised by sector;
- support to get employers, particularly small businesses, ready to take on an apprentice;
- new ways of matching young people with vacancies.
The pilot starts with three sectors: housing, leisure and tourism, and advanced manufacturing, which the authority says reflect the region’s workforce priorities and growth plans.
The Chancellor announced the programme in September, with brokerage pilots across England’s established mayoral strategic authorities. The authority calls its version one of England’s first region-wide apprenticeship brokerage services.
What it means for you
Nothing changes for applicants until the service launches, which the authority expects in April 2027. In the meantime it has put out a free online toolkit, apprenticeReady, which it says was built with young people, employers, schools and colleges to help with applications, interviews and assessments. When we checked the page on 26 October it had separate sections for learners, schools and colleges, employers and parents and carers, plus a guide to the recruitment and selection methods employers use.
The figures show why the authority is aiming at young people out of work. North Tyneside’s claimant count rose by 220 to 4,310 in September, as we reported last week.
Employers in the borough, especially in leisure and tourism, are the other half of the scheme: the authority wants “talent magnet” employers to take on applicants who narrowly missed out elsewhere.
What they said
Mayor Kim McGuinness said:
“There is no shortage of talent in the North East, but too many young people still struggle to find a route into work.
“We’re changing that.
“This new apprenticeship clearing service will make sure when one door closes, another opens.
“If you miss out on one apprenticeship opportunity, we will help you find the next one as quickly as possible.”
Christopher Eynon, the authority’s cabinet member for Home of Real Opportunity and leader of Sunderland City Council, said:
“Apprenticeships are a great opportunity for young people to work and train, gaining valuable employment experience and developing new skills at the same time.
“We have an extremely dynamic economy in the North East with a wide range of different skill sets that our employers need. This new approach is about bringing those opportunities together.
“If a young person misses out on one apprenticeship, we should be doing everything we can to help them find the next one, understanding the challenges, and making it easier for the small businesses that are the life blood of our economy to harness the potential they have to offer.”
The cabinet resolved to approve the approach and to delegate the delivery plan, “including deployment of up to £10m DWP pilot funding”, to the chief executive, according to the decision record. No start date beyond the April 2027 wave has been published. More about the authority’s work is on the North East MSA website.
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