To Cirrus,
I think you would be extremely lucky to get on an apprenticeship at 33 today. Perhaps, I made it even more difficult for myself by applying in November, lol! Spring and early summer are the best times to apply imho, with college's starting in September. Not many companies do apprenticeships, so something must be quite wrong.
I phoned 70 companies in London, and phoned mine 10 frickin times, lol! And I spent many phone calls to the JIB, ECA and JTL. I do not rate JIB and especially JTL, what a joke they are! Was like a NASCAR race. Finally got on their 'approved' list but being older than 18 meant ANY company would have to pay half the college fees and a lot more to JTL for some silly 'officer' to help you fill in a arch lever file/portfolio which I can do myself??!! It would never had happened. It's so much doing it private through my local college. Getting my college placement was another story of sheer luck! There's usually a 2-3 year waiting list for the 2330 L2.