The Government-backed campaign, which starts today (7th), aims to promote the benefits of apprenticeships to both employees and employers.

The council currently has seven apprentices on its payroll, including Stacey Tebbett, of Mansfield Woodhouse (above), who works in the Law and Governance department as a trainee auditor and combines her office job with studying for a Higher level apprenticeship qualification.

She said: “Since I started working for the council I haven’t looked back. This apprenticeship has given me the opportunity to learn something new, with a guaranteed job at the end – all done during working hours and funded by my employer.

“I think the words ‘apprentice’ and ‘apprenticeship’ are often misunderstood. Many people may think it refers to someone straight from school and on very low wage.

“This couldn’t be any further from the truth. An apprenticeship is available to anyone of any age who wants to learn and succeed. I am 28, with lots of previous work experience and I have a competitive salary.

“The support that I have received from my training provider is great, equally the support internally from the council has been fantastic with opportunities to shadow in meetings, audits and testing to give me knowledge and confidence to build on my own skills.

“I will shortly be leading on my first solo led audit. This is an achievement I did not expect to be experiencing so early into my training.”

For another council trainee, Josh Peck (top), 24, of Warsop, his apprenticeship path started in one area – customer service – and took him to another: the ICT department where he is now studying for a degree in Data Analytics.

He started looking at the apprenticeship route a year into doing his A-levels, as an alternative to studying at university.

“I had friends who were doing apprenticeships locally and they were enjoying them and had money to spend!” he said. “Everyone should consider an apprenticeship as a valuable route to achieving their career aspirations.

“The whole experience has been excellent and the support has been brilliant in all the departments I have worked in. I feel my confidence has grown to a very high level as well as my organisational skills and people skills.

“I will be continuing on my learning journey for another 18 months. I know this is the career for me and I would love to stay at the council if possible.”

The council is using National Apprenticeship Week to showcase this kind of training and education option as part of the authority’s wider strategy to raise the aspirations of local people and boost regeneration and prosperity in the district.

Coun Stuart Richardson, portfolio holder for regeneration and growth, said: “The council is very keen to see local businesses invest in their workforce and offering them the chance to upskill as part of our aspiration priorities.

“Recruitment is expensive so it makes a lot of economic sense to train existing staff to levels a business requires. It keeps local people in jobs and attracts talent into the area, too. We want this to be an area where people can achieve and go into good well-paid jobs.”

The council will be promoting success stories, events, training opportunities and careers pathways during the week on its social media channels, as well as myth busting, to encourage local people and businesses to take advantage of the support and opportunities open to them.

There is more information about apprenticeships on the council website at:  www.mansfield.gov.uk/NAW.