Eighteen young people are starting a three-year engineering apprenticeship with Northern.

The apprentices will gain a qualification in rail engineering at Myerscough College in Preston as part of the National Training Academy for Rail.

They will receive specialised technical training on servicing, repairing, and maintaining Northern's fleet of more than 300 trains.

Once qualified, various roles within the train operator such as maintenance engineer and technical engineer will be open to them.

Since 2020, Northern has supported 88 individuals through an engineering apprenticeship.

Hundreds of young people applied for this year's scheme in January.

Paul Wilkinson, engineering apprenticeship manager at Northern, said: "A regular intake of apprentices is really important because it means we’re nurturing a future generation of talent.

"Supporting young people to get the skills and experience required to support not only our business, but the railway as a whole, is really fulfilling, and I look forward to working with all of our new apprentices over the next three years."

One of the apprentices, Jessica Townsend, based at Northern’s TrainCare Centre in Hull, said: "I’m really excited to get hands-on experience and get to know the people I’ll be working with at Northern."

There are currently more than 660 colleagues on apprenticeship programmes within Northern's driving, conducting, engineering, and business support operations.

Northern plans to enrol a further 467 people on an apprentice qualification this year.

Northern is the second largest train operator in the UK, with nearly 2,500 services a day to more than 500 stations across the North of England.

For more information about their various apprenticeship schemes, visit northernrailway.co.uk/careers/early-careers/apprenticeships.