Fifteen youngsters have become the first batch in Newham to earn an apprenticeship working at McDonald’s.
The newly appointed staff are among almost 11,000 McDonald’s staff in the country to complete the qualification.
It provides job specific skills in customer service, teamwork and communications and is equivalent to five GCSEs.
The apprentices were presented with certificates at the McDonald’s Forest Gate restaurant.
Franchisee Zulfikar Somji said: “I’m proud to be able to offer local people this type of opportunity in the form of our apprenticeship programme and believe it’s important for more businesses to invest in such training opportunities.
“Any business that invests in people now during tougher times will help our economy in the long term by helping strengthen the task force.”
Newham Mayor Sir Robin Wales added: “We have a strong relationship with McDonald’s, which recruits through our job brokerage scheme Workplace.”
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