SEVEN young people from the town have landed apprenticeships with United Utilities.

The group fought off competition from more than 1,000 hopefuls to win one of 30 places on the company's award winning apprenticeship scheme.

Sam Melson, Emily Purcell from Penketh, Joshua Davies from Winwick, Leila Thomason from Croft, and Niamh Scotland, Richard Crean and Michael Howard, all from Great Sankey, joined the firm this week after an extensive selection process.

Leila Thomason, aged 21, is United Utilities’ first human resources apprentice and will spend the next two years at the company’s headquarters in Great Sankey working towards a HR qualification.

She said: “I applied to the HR apprenticeship because I became interested in the area of work after some experience in my current role. United Utilities is also very appealing due to its size, status and the opportunities to progress.”

Joshua and Niamh, both aged 18, will train in customer services. Sam, aged 17 and 22-year-old Michael, are on engineering apprenticeships. Richard, aged 25, will train in IT security, and Emily, aged 18, will take an advanced apprenticeship as a laboratory and science technician.

Managing Director Steve Fraser said: “Like many industry sectors we need to invest in new talent to head off a looming skills shortage. Our apprentices are vital for our future success. They couldn’t be joining us at a better time as we prepare to start a huge programme of investment.”