SEVERN Trent, the utilities giant that supplies Worcestershire's water, is swimming against the tide by taking on more apprentices that ever this year.

While a new report from the Association of Graduate Recruiters shows that like-for-like graduate vacancies are down, the Midlands FTSE 100 company will be taking on 45 graduates this year, compared with 27 last year. The news comes soon after Severn Trent welcomed a record 80 new apprentices on board.

Matthew Higgs, new talent programme manager at ST, said: “We’re absolutely committed to bringing on our next generation of business leaders, whether they’re graduates or apprentices, and that’s reflected in the numbers that we’ve taken on this year. We offer a well-rounded programme for our new starters and, in fact, we’ve just started to accept applications for next year’s programme so we’d urge students in the final year to take a look at our website to get more information. Severn Trent offers graduate leadership programmes and undergraduate summer placements which give graduates the opportunity to become a future business leader within our organisation and shaping the future of Severn Trent."

Applicants can chose from four programmes: business leadership, finance leadership, technical leadership – engineering and technical leadership – information systems. The new 45-strong intake will start their new careers at Severn Trent on September 26.