While Sir Alan’s TV hunt for a new recruit may have come to an end, Orbis is celebrating the success of its own “Apprentice” scheme after the 100th employee passed its City & Guilds course.

Two years ago virtually no employees at the company held any City & Guilds qualifications. However today more than 50 per cent of eligible employees have already achieved a qualification.

Today new employees are signed up for the training programme and have the opportunity to work towards four levels of Orbis awards.

New chief executive David Walker said the partnership with the City & Guilds had reaped rewards for Orbis, its employees and its customers.

“We are determined to run a training programme which not only attracts young, enthusiastic and capable people to Orbis, but also keeps and encourages employees who show real skills and promise.

“This is a great milestone for Orbis and a great success story for the people who deliver for our clients consistently high standards every single time.”

The awards are split into modules, based on 20 core services that the empty property protection company provides, and employees are assessed on a range of achievements from customer service to the standards of their workmanship.

The 100th employee to receive the award was Mark Collins who achieved the Level 3 Orbis City & Guilds award.

Collins, who joined Orbis five years ago, is now a team leader covering all aspects of Orbis’ work from installing steel shuttering to clearing empty properties to monitoring alarms.