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Tui announces an increase of 500 new apprenticeship places

Tui Travel UK & Ireland is to increase its apprenticeship scheme by 50% by 2010.

The travel company, which owns Thomson and First Choice, plans to create 500 new apprenticeship places for young people, meaning there will be 1,500 available places primarily in retail and overseas positions.

Jacky Simmonds, Tui's HR director, said: "The business community needs to act quickly in order to harness young talent and to use it to best effect rather than allow our young people to stay out of work for months and years on end.

"From a business perspective, our apprenticeship programme provides areas of our business with enthusiastic and loyal staff."

Over the past five years, Tui has trained more than 3,500 apprentices.