Charlie hard at work Today I’ve been presenting to and talking with a bunch of young people interested in apprenticeships at the Birmingham Metropolitan College Jobs fair. It was really good to see local MPs, business leaders and training providers come together to tackle youth unemployment in the Midlands.

Having been through the apprenticeship system myself at Trilby, I’ve been really keen to raise the awareness of apprenticeship opportunities. I believe doing an apprenticeship was the best career decision I ever made.

It was interesting to meet so many young people who are in a similar situation that I was in just over a year ago. I hope that by having shared my experience as a graphic design apprentice with Creative Alliance Birmingham, that I inspired others to take the same road.

I was invited to share my experience at today’s job fair by Bally Bhogal from LEP Skills For Growth. Working as a duo with Bally, we encouraged young people to go after their dreams and it was really refreshing to meet other people from like minded organisations.

I don’t think anything like today has been achieved in the Midlands before, I'm hopeful to see more of these over the coming months and I’d love to get involved again.

I hope many of the people that I spoke today now see apprenticeship schemes as genuine way to kick start their careers.

- Charlie Barrington-Osborne