A town centre café in Ipswich is the latest business to achieve the New Anglia Youth Pledge Marque.

The Youth Pledge Marque is awarded to businesses which show their support for New Anglia Local Enterprise Partnership’s “Youth Pledge”, the LEP’s commitment that every young person in Norfolk and Suffolk will get the support they need to get into education, training, an apprenticeship or a job within three months of leaving education or employment.

Applaud Coffee in St Peter’s Street, Ipswich, which won the Best Café category in the 2016 EADT Suffolk Food & Drink Awards, has recently hired its first apprentice, Nelly Keen.

Café owners Hannah Huntly and Beth Cook are providing on-the-job training in all aspects of the coffee shop while Nelly works towards a Level 2 NVQ Diploma in Food and Beverage Service with Suffolk New College’s School of Commercial Services.

Beth said: “We started a programme of training with Nelly immediately and in just two months we are seeing the benefit of her higher skills.

“We enjoy passing on our experience to Nelly and have found it inspiring, particularly as she is so keen to learn. We are doing what we consider best in managing our business and are also pleased to receive the Youth Pledge Marque.”

Hannah added: “As our apprentice is 17 years old and we are a small business, her training at Suffolk New College is funded by the Government. We found the Suffolk New College staff so helpful and arrangements were quickly put into place for Nelly to commence the apprenticeship.”

Natasha Waller, skills manager at New Anglia LEP, said: “It’s great to see a small business like Applaud Coffee taking on and training an apprentice. For SMEs, apprenticeships can be a great way to develop their workforce and there’s plenty of support available to assist them.”

The Youth Pledge Marque is available to businesses which take on apprentices, offer work experience placements or join the New Anglia Enterprise Advisor Network which connects business leaders with local schools and colleges to help motivate and inspire young people.