Larne Young Apprentice Final

Last week I had the great honour of opening the live final of Larne's Young Apprentice with the BBC's Apprentice finalist Jim Eastwood. The competition is part of the Larne Youth Opportunities Programme, supported by Larne Borough Council, and developed as a response to the high levels of youth unemployment in the Larne Borough.

Photo courtesy of Bernie McAllister @ Argyll Images

The Youth opportunities programme has included a Youth Opportunities Fair held in June 2012 which was attended by 139 young people and approx.20 employment and training providers. 85% of young people who completed a survey felt that their job or training prospects had improved as a result of attending this Fair. 

There has also been a Youth Exploring Enterprise Programme, running from August to October this year.  This provided 10 young people under the age of 30 with the opportunity to explore self- employment as an option and improve their employability skills. 2 achieved employment before completing the programme and the others will receive mentoring support to help them to achieve their goal.

Larne Borough Council recognises the particular challenges faced by young people in the current economic climate and is committed, through Larne Development Forum, to helping address the challenges by positive actions and suppor.

Photo courtesy of Bernie McAllister @ Argyll Images

The Larne Apprentice Competition has been designed to develop and assess the young person's business acumen, attitude, social understanding and leadership and to help young people gain new work related skills within a commercial environment enabling them to make contact with potential business owners and leaders within the greater Larne area.  This has been an innovative programme that has been developed by Larne development Forum

I would congratulate all six candidates that took part in the programme and in particular our final two candidates Chris Taylor and Zarak Bartley who we will be hearing form shortly

This final task is about the marketing of Larne to the tourist market outside of Larne, so I was very interested in what the final two candidate’s ideas were and their presentations.

The candidates had done outstandingly well in their final task. Both presentations aimed to design a marketing plan for Larne, and while both presentations were different, each candidate learnt a lot about what Larne has to offer. I was extremely encouraged by the enthusiasm and effort demonstrated by both candidates, and am pleased that Larne Borough Council will be able to actively involve both finalists in forthcoming workshops.

Finally, my sincere congratulations to Zarak, the deserving winner of the competition, and Chris for a well-earned second place. I would also like to thank Jim Eastwood for his inspiring contribution to the event which I am sure will have had a positive impact on the contestants and audience in general.