Trainee journalists took centre stage when a royal visitor gave his seal of approval to a campaign by Britain’s biggest selling regional newspaper to help stamp out unemployment among the UK’s young.

The Express & Star has launched Ladder for the Black Country which aims to create at least 500 new apprenticeships in a region with the worst rates of youth joblessness in the country – twice the national average.

The Duke of York, as patron, visited the paper’s headquarters in Wolverhampton to meet the team behind the project, young people looking for work opportunities and business supporters.

As well as seeing the Midland News Association’s five new journalism apprentices at work, Prince Andrew met colleagues in the newsroom before speaking to youngsters and employers signed up to the Ladder campaign – including the Vine Trust, Performance Through People, the Black Country Chamber of Commerce and IKEA.

The Duke, an ardent supporter of apprenticeships, hailed the initiative as a “local solution for a national problem”, adding: “Young people should have the opportunity to choose the route that is best for them.”

While more than 8,000 youngsters aged between 18 and 24 are currently unemployed in the region, the campaign has got off to a flying start – creating 100 jobs in just seven days.