BORDON apprentice Eden Carter joined Pinetree Enterprises, Blacknest, three months ago and has gone from strength to strength, having been “thrown in at the deep end”.

Working for the senior accounts manager, her basic training was in telephone manner and techniques, with the standard familiarisation in health and safety and employment law.

But when her boss, Anna Cass, went skiing at Christmas, broke her leg and could not work for six weeks, the firm had no choice but to “throw Eden in at the deep end”.

“We didn’t know who was most surprised, when not only did we discover she could swim very well, but we are now considering whether she should enter the Olympics,” Martyn Kiddey, managing director of the display-manufacturing firm, said. Starting just past her 16th birthday, Eden joined in a sales-support role and is taking a level two NVQ in sales.

Mr Kiddey said: “This experience has reinforced our belief in the apprenticeship scheme and it has proved that it is attitude and determination, not age and experience, that counts.”

Eden lives in Bordon and is sponsored by East Hampshire District Council.