Matthew Hartie, managing director of Breeze City, told Recruiter that by paying them only their costs “we will get a more committed and success-hungry individual.

“They can see the other guys earning £0,000 basic and £60,000 on target earnings, and they think ’that could be us if we apply ourselves’.”

Before the recession, Hartie said he paid his trainees a salary of £20,000 to £25,000 a year. “But because they never earned that type of money before, what was the motivation for them to earn money?” he added.

Hartie, who was on the old Youth Training Scheme 15 years’ ago, said he likes to think that the apprentices will be making money for the company and running their own desks within six to eight months. And he said he plans to take on five more across the group’s three companies: Breeze City, Broadgate Associates and Breeze Southern by the end of March.