The first bakery apprentice in a new £2m government pilot scheme has started training.

Seventeen-year-old Katie Fletcher started a three-year apprenticeship with Marion Symonds at Portreath Bakery in Redruth, Cornwall in April.

The pilot scheme is operated by the Livery Companies Apprenticeship Scheme (LCAS), working with a total of 20 Livery Companies and through Creative and Cultural Skills. It includes the Worshipful Company of Bakers as a qualifying body.

LCAS has funding for training 52 apprenticeships across the Livery trades, including five one- to three-year Level 4 bakery apprenticeships.

David Johnson of LCAS told British Baker it hopes to tap into further sources of public funding to extend the apprenticeship scheme in future.