British Gas is trebling its recruitment of apprentice gas engineers creating 1,000 new jobs over the next 18 months.

The company will invest £40 million in recruitment and training across its network of five Engineering Academy training centres based across the UK.

The move by British Gas, will help to plug the industry wide shortage of domestic gas engineers, a shortfall estimated to stand at 20,000. The new British Gas apprentices will be joining an existing workforce of 9,000 gas engineers and will be trained to NVQ Level 3 standard.

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The investment will also help to fund two new Academies in Leicester and Scotland, which will open in 2009. The other Academy locations are in Dartford, Leeds and Thatcham. The Academies have been individually designed to combine traditional classroom facilities with state of the art equipment and technology, all housing over 200 gas appliances.

Chris Weston, Managing Director, British Gas Services said: "Our people are our greatest strength and our engineers are the most visible aspect of our business on a daily basis.

"While some may have thought apprenticeships were consigned to history in the way of the traditional black and white TV set - we have found the success of the apprenticeship scheme is helping to drive the business forward. It's an important route to attracting motivated and enthusiastic recruits and providing an enviably high standard of quality training. Research has shown our apprentices to be 25% more efficient and customer focused than employees trained elsewhere."

(CD/JM)