THE number of apprentices employed by Bolton Council's Direct Labour Organisation is set to treble in a bid to stave off a skills shortage.

Each year, the DLO, which carries out work on the town's 22,500 local authority homes, takes on 12 young people.

But the figure is set to shoot up to 36 as more school leavers are sought for places on training schemes to turn them into electricians, joiners, gas fitters, brick layers, plasterers and other skilled tradesmen.

If councillors at the next cabinet meeting for human resources approve the plan, extra recruitment will begin next month.

Cabinet member for direct services, Cllr Donald Grime said: "We have looked at our situation and are anticipating a severe shortage of skilled labour.

"We have recently tried to recruit 12 people as gas fitters but found only three new starters.

"Unfortunately, there were a lot of cutbacks some years ago in industry and one of the sectors which suffered was apprenticeships training. We maintained our apprenticeship programme but in the wider picture there is now a shortage which looks like it is going to get worse."

Cllr Grime added: "It's also good news for the local labour market with more opportunities for school leavers.

"Our customers come from all sections of the community and we want to reflect that diversity in our workforce. This means we would like more young women and black and Asian and disadvantaged people to apply for these jobs."