ASPIRING young butchers Liam and Ashley Robins were celebrating this week after completing their training.

The 19-year-old duo have been receiving on-the-job instruction at Bent and Cornwell Quality Meats on Market Place in Ely from master butchers David Bent and Adrian Cornwell.

Eighteen months after first picking up a carving knife, the pair, from Little Downham, are now fully fledged butchers, having received their NVQ Level Two awards.

Mentor David Bent said: “Both Ashley and Liam have worked very hard to achieve these qualifications, Liam also has been chosen as the apprentice of the month by Meat Ipswich who run the scheme for us

“We get all our trainees to do NVQs as this gives us a structure to build there training around, and takes between one and two years to achieve.”

Bent & Cornwell Quality Meats has been in business on the Market Place for 14 years and have trained up seven young butchers in that time, despite a nationwide lack of youngsters getting into the trade.

“I think there were some statistics that showed the average age of a butcher now is 56,” added David, “but we are both very pleased for Ashley and Liam and we are more than happy to have the young lads around.”