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Energy firm British Gas has announced plans to recruit 300 new apprentices this year.

Most of the opportunities will be engineering apprenticeships but there will be some other positions such as customer service apprenticeships on offer too.

Starting salaries for the apprentices will be around £14,000 but that figure will rise very quickly - by a further £3,000 within the first five months.

Just two months after that, the new recruits could be earning £20,000 and can look forward to a final salary of £28,000 once their apprenticeship is complete.

Bear in mind that those figures don’t even include opportunities for overtime and potential bonuses, so the new British Gas apprenticeships could end up earning up to £32,000 per year within just a few years.

Successful applicants will be offered training at British Gas Academies in Dartford, Glasgow,

Leicester, Rotherham, Stockport or Thatcham - and the company is keen to attract women onto their apprenticeship schemes.

British Gas has forecast that it will create 3,500 apprenticeships before the end of this decade and also, via its Pathway programme, offers roles to ex-forces and former Team GB athletes.

Announcing the recruitment plans, Chris O'Shea, the Chief Executive Officer of Centrica (the parent company which owns British Gas) said:

“Education and employment are critical to raising standards of living. I'm proud that we are creating thousands of well paid, unionised jobs and that we're supporting ex-forces veterans and our amazing Team GB athletes as part of our broader arrangement with Team GB.”

“It's vital that we reflect the diversity of the customers and communities we support, and we're committed to creating the workforce of the future that can deliver the UK's net zero ambitions."

“The new customer service apprenticeship is part of our efforts to boost our customer operations. We've invested £50 million in customer service including hiring more UK-based contact centre staff and introducing longer call centre opening times.”

“We were recently recognised as the most improved energy supplier for customer service by USwitch. This shows our efforts are working but we continue to look at how we can improve customer service.”

Andy Prendergast, National Secretary of the GMB Union, welcomed the announcement from British Gas, saying: “This is good news. GMB has continually pushed for an increase in the number of apprentices taken on by British Gas and we are pleased to see these calls being turned into action.”

“These new apprenticeships are great opportunities for people to earn while they learn vital skills and will help ensure we have the people necessary to meet the very real working challenges presented by the move towards Net Zero,” added Mr Prendergast.

You can find out more about apprenticeships at British Gas by visiting parent company Centrica careers website.