What a great year! Now let's bring in another batch of Hartlepool apprentices

Sixty students took the bricklaying course at Hartlepool firm Pro-Active Training, based on the Park View Industrial Estate.

And now, as their year comes to an end, 75 per cent of them have already applied to move on to level 3 training.

It was only last November that Pro-Active first opened and launched its training courses, with the aim of teaching people in bricklaying.

Media and marketing officer Becky Willis said the success of the students had been “fantastic” and had prompted a lot of companies to show an interest in the work done at Pro-Active.

“People are seeing what we are doing and more people are getting to know us. A lot of parents are interested in getting their children here.

“And we are getting a lot of interest from construction companies.”

As well as in house training, Pro-Active students get to go out on site at groundwork companies to learn what it is like on a real construction site.

The outgoing students will be attending an awards night at Hartlepool Rugby Club in Easington Road on October 20.

But the next batch of traineeships will be filled in the coming weeks with 90 spaces available from the start of November.

Of that intake, 60 will progress to a full apprenticeship on level 2.

Becky added: “We have got 135 students at the moment but we can increase and we are still recruiting.”