He likes to tell people how, in his first job as a Mars management trainee, he learnt that the best way of sweeping up Maltesers from the factory floor was first to step on them.

ECONOMIST: Royal Mail

His first job, in 1957, was as a management trainee with ICI, but after five years he joined the BBC in Newcastle on the "Look North" news magazine programme.

BBC: Frank Bough

Scotrail advertised the trainee positions last year and had received 2, 229 job requests by the mid-January closing date.

BBC: Borders railway: Thousands apply for train driver jobs