Ben Gummer, MP for Ipswich, has praised one of the town’s largest businesses for their commitment to apprenticeships after visiting them earlier this week at their Neptune Marina offices.

During his visit to Sanctuary Personnel, based on the Ipswich Waterfront, Mr Gummer was introduced to many of the company’s talented apprentices, giving him the opportunity to learn more about how Sanctuary is enabling young people to combine practical work experience with theoretical learning. Sanctuary is one of the region’s largest employers of apprentices, and currently more than 40 young people are benefitting from one of their comprehensive apprenticeship opportunities.

Ben Gummer said: “Sanctuary is one of the most exciting businesses in the region and it is great to see what they are achieving. Like the very best businesses, they are working extremely hard to train their apprentices and are offering some fantastic career opportunities.

“I often visit schools in Ipswich and it is clear that apprenticeships are gaining more respect from parents and teachers, and here at Sanctuary you can see why. These are intensive training programmes which offer jobs at the end, giving a young person a head start in their future careers.”

James Rook, managing director of Sanctuary Personnel added: “I’m really proud to have been able to introduce so many talented apprentices to Ben and that they were able to explain to him exactly how the apprenticeship scheme has made a difference to them and their career.”

Sanctuary currently has apprenticeship positions available for young people looking for an alternative to traditional academic study.

Sanctuary employs more than 160 local people from its Ipswich offices.

Sanctuary’s Modern Apprenticeship Academy has been running for eight years and Sanctuary works closely with a variety of local training providers to support our modern apprentices through their work-based qualifications.

Sanctuary Personnel has grown to a £61 million annual turnover and has preferred supplier status in 180 public sector organisations.

It is the UK’s largest independent provider of qualified social workers.

Sanctuary Personnel won Recruitment Agency of the Year at the Recruiter Awards for Excellence 2014 on 7 May at the Grosvenor House Hotel, London.

Sanctuary Personnel was named ‘Medium/Large Business of the Year’ at the 2014 Anglian Business Awards.

Sanctuary is also an ‘Investors in People’ organisation.