Ahhhhh! thanks Emma... Recruitment agencies in the US were notorious for charging both the employer and the prospective employee for placements.

ECC has a highly publicised apprentice programme that pays school leavers £95.00 a week. There is no guarantee of placement in permanent employment at the end of apprenticeship, but would be good experience if it worked.
The Council in its infinite wisdom did not provide services with the funding to actually take up the scheme, (hiring freeze means the budget cannot support replacing vacant posts much less fund an apprentice). A colleague is trying to get her son in the apprenticeship programme but has been told repeatedly there are no placements at the current time.

Guess it is just so much spin to make the council look like it is doing something. God that sounds so jaded. Sigh!