A CITY-BASED company has been appointed to promote the Government-led National Apprenticeship Service in the East Midlands.

The contract for BCS Public Relations is part of a nation-wide campaign to raise awareness of the benefits of taking on apprentices.

BCS PR, in North Sherwood Street, is now working on publicity involving TV, radio, press and new media.

The Government wants one in five young people to be an apprentice by 2020. One in nine young people is an apprentice in the East Midlands. There were 234,000 apprenticeships nationally last year. It is hoped there will be 400,000 by 2020.