A training agency has announced ambitious plans to offer apprenticeships to 16 to 18-year-olds in caring for the elderly, as a new report highlights a nationwide care home staffing crisis.

Training For Today (TFT), based on Lever Street, Bolton, is to offer apprenticeships to anyone aged between 16 and 18, which, it believes, will help young people gain valuable experience when they apply for jobs in care homes.

TFT spokesman Tony McAdoo said: "We can offer £50 per week training allowance plus travel on the course. Apprentices will attend our training centre 3 days each week for 8 weeks. After that time they will go on placement 1 or 2 days per week in one of the many care homes we already deal with."

The training they receive will lead them to a fully qualified apprenticeship in care.

The training course will include the NVQ Level 2 in caring for the elderly, as well as key skills applications, technical certificates, care practice teaching and handling training certificates.

"People under 18 were not allowed to work in care homes, but by offering this apprenticeship, when they do reach 18, the young people on this course will be in a very strong position to take up full time employment within a care home," added Mr McAdoo

The news comes as three reports claim that elderly people's care homes face a severe crisis of staffing and a need for dramatically increased numbers of beds.

The English Community Care Association's report, Improving Lives, Improving Life, surveyed 30 of Britain's biggest care-home operators and said that care-home operators have "major concerns about meeting the Government's 2005 targets for trained members of care staff". The report claimed that over-regulation and a lack of investment in training was primarily responsible for the care home staffing 'time bomb.'

A seperate report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation said that spending on long-term care for older people in Britain may need to rise from £12.9 billion in 2000 to £53.9 billion by 2051 just to maintain current standards, and to keep pace with demographic change, places in nursing homes, residential care homes and hospitals will have to rise by some 150 per cent, from about 450,000 to 1,130,000 by 2051, according to a report in professional journal Nursing Standard.

A TRAINING agency has announced ambitious plans to offer apprenticeships to 16 to 18 years olds in caring for the elderly, as a new report highlights a nationwide care home staffing crisis.

Training For Today (TFT), based on Lever Street, Bolton, is to offer apprenticeships to anyone aged between 16 and 18, which, it believes, will help young people gain priceless experience when they apply for jobs in care homes.

TFT spokesman Tony McAdoo said: "We can offer £50 per week training allowance plus travel on the course. Apprentices will attend our training centre three days each week for eight weeks. After that time they will go on placement one or two days per week in one of the many care homes we already deal with."

The training they receive will lead them to a fully qualified apprenticeship in care.

The training course will include the NVQ Level 2 in caring for the elderly, as well as key skills applications, technical certificates, care practice teaching and handling training certificates.

"People under 18 were not allowed to work in care homes, but by offering this apprenticeship, when they do reach 18, the young people on this course will be in a very strong position to take up full time employment within a care home," added Mr McAdoo

The news comes as three reports claim that elderly people's care homes face a severe crisis of staffing and a need for dramatically increased numbers of beds.

The English Community Care Association's report, Improving Lives, Improving Life, surveyed 30 of Britain's biggest care-home operators and said that care-home operators have "major concerns about meeting the Government's 2005 targets for trained members of care staff". The report claimed that over-regulation and a lack of investment in training was primarily responsible for the care home staffing 'time bomb.'

A seperate report by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation said that spending on long-term care for older people in Britain may need to rise from £12.9 billion in 2000 to £53.9 billion by 2051 just to maintain current standards, and to keep pace with demographic change, places in nursing homes, residential care homes and hospitals will have to rise by some 150 per cent, from about 450,000 to 1,130,000 by 2051, according to a report in professional journal Nursing Standard.