APPRENTICESHIPS in civil engineering are being offered to three school leavers by the North Lincolnshire Highways Alliance.

The alliance, which includes Clugston Construction, Pell Frischmann, North Lincolnshire Council and North Lindsey College, will take on the new employees from September.

They will follow a two-year programme of training, gaining practical experience with all of the partnership organisations and completing a BTEC course at the college.

If they are successful, the new recruits could follow in the footsteps of previous apprentices and earn a permanent job with one of the alliance businesses.

Construction director at Clugston, Rod Fry, said the alliance was formed two years ago and the apprenticeship scheme had already proved to be successful.

He said: "The first three lads that we took on all passed their exams with distinction and they will all be getting permanent positions.

"Another three are now into the second year of their two-year course and we have advertised for another three to offer them a two-year course, starting this year."

Mr Fry said the apprenticeships would offer varied duties.

He said: "It is an engineering-based apprenticeship.

"They will be joining each of the businesses in a technical engineering capacity.

"They will start as a trainee engineer and work up to a project manager and beyond in the fullness of time.

"Generally, they will be working on-site, assisting the site engineer, getting involved with quality assurance procedures, starting to understand about supervising the workforce and getting a general introduction to the construction industry."

The apprentices will be assigned to one of the alliance companies for each college term, as well as working towards their BTEC qualification.

Mr Fry said helping young people get into work was important for Clugston.

He said: "From our business's point of view, it is massively important.

"I think we are a business that does recruit at a younger age and, hopefully, people have a long and valuable career in the business.

"Taking people on at a young age enables us to train them in the way we want them to work. We hope they stay at our business for a lot of years and it is a major source of our talent."

Clugston is one of the region's biggest construction firms, with contractors currently working on the new Baths Hall venue, in Scunthorpe. Applicants for the apprenticeships must be at least 16 years old and have, or be expected to achieve, four GCSEs at grade C or above, or any intermediate GNVQ. Anybody who is interested in applying for one of the positions should call Clugston Construction on 01724 873491.

The closing date for applications is Monday, August 9.