Fast food chain McDonald's has announced it will recruit up to 6,000 people a year by rolling out the government's Local Employment Partnership (LEP) scheme to all 1,200 restaurants.

The company has currently 100 of its 72,000-strong workforce participating in the scheme, designed for the long-term unemployed. The apprenticeship programme is understood to include pre-employment training and a three-week trial and a guaranteed interview for a permanent role. It will also equip successful applicants with a nationally-recognised qualification equivalent to five GCSEs grade A*-C. David Fairhurst, senior vice president of McDonald’s UK, said: “In these challenging economic times, it is more important than ever for employers to invest in their staff. With the service and hospitality sector now one of the biggest employers in the UK economy – over 1.9 million people are employed by the hospitality and tourism sector alone - it’s vital that we and others in the industry invest in skills and training now to ensure the sector is ready to shine when the UK emerges from the downturn.”