Leading debit, credit and commercial card provider Visa Europe is in the early stages of recruitment for the second year of its apprenticeship programme.

School leavers are the focus of the scheme, in which 17 young people will participate in three separate areas of the business, Derrick Ahlfeldt, senior vice president, human resources management, told Recruiter. 

“It makes me want to come to work in the morning, the opportunity to do this sort of thing on a regular basis,” Ahlfeldt said. “You look at the state of our economy, and the problem that we’ve got with kids not able to find work, and this is why we do this.”

Apprentices who are placed in the technology and finance parts of Visa Europe’s business are guided “from entry level right through to a degree-level qualification, and then we offer them permanent jobs afterwards”, Ahlfeldt said. “So these are formal qualifications, with jobs at the end.”

The third part of Visa Europe’s programme consists of one-year business administration apprenticeships. “These are for underprivileged kids who don’t have an opportunity really,” Ahlfeldt said. “We give them a chance to apply and come and spend a year in one of our divisions … at best, they’ve got an opportunity to get a permanent job after if they want to and we’ve got the vacancy. Or they’ve got something on their CV that says ‘I worked at Visa for a year and this is what I achieved’.”

Visa Europe draws many of its apprentices from state schools near to its Paddington offices in London, and its offices in Reading and Basingstoke to the West of London.