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Through the programme, apprentices earn while they learn about brewing, design and marketing.
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In 2017, Greene King launched the Craft Academy, an 18 month brewing venture led by apprentices. Those who successfully complete and graduate from the programme are offered a role onto the Greene King Apprenticeship Programme. The aim of the programme is to address the skills and experience gaps that prevent unemployed people from getting into work. In 2016, Greene King launched the Get Into Hospitality Programme in partnership with The Prince's Trust. Since launch, the scheme has processed some 9,000 apprentices. Greene King has been supporting apprenticeships since 2011 through its Greene King Apprenticeship Programme. The brewery has an exhibition of pub sign artwork by George Taylor, who designed over 250 such signs for Greene King pubs. There is a visitor centre next to the brewery, and tours are run regularly throughout the week. The takeover was approved by the High Court in October 2019. Analyst David Blennerhassett told the FT that CK Assets has a track record of buying such assets in the UK and he does not expect it to sell Greene King later as a bet on the falling pound. According to the Financial Times, the holding company is taking the view that the pubs owned by Greene King are an asset that is safe from potential recession. In 2019 the Hong Kong based CK Assets announced the proposed take over of Greene King, which shareholders had to approve. It was announced in November 2018 that Rooney Anand would be stepping down from his role as CEO after 14 years in the position. The Spirit acquisition, where Greene King bought Spirit for £773.6m, took the total number of Greene King sites to 3,116, brought 14 brands together and made Greene King the largest managed pub company in the UK. Greene King has grown via mergers and acquisitions, including Rayments Brewery (1961), the Magic Pub Company (1996), Hungry Horse (1996), Morland Brewery (1999), Old English Inns (2001), Morrells (2002), a large part of the Laurel Pub Company (2004), Ridley's Brewery (2005), Belhaven Brewery (2005), Hardys and Hansons (2006), the Loch Fyne fish restaurant chain (2007), Cloverleaf (2011), Realpubs (2011), the Capital Pub Company (2011) and the Spirit Pub Company (2015). In 1836 Edward Greene took over the business and in 1887 it merged with Frederick William King's brewing business to create Greene King. In Richard Wilson's biographical analysis of the Greene family, he credits various family members for being able to achieve distinction in the worlds of business and banking, literature ( Graham Greene, for example) and broadcasting in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.' The brewery was founded by Benjamin Greene in Bury St. Greene King plaque on the side of a pub in Sudbury, Suffolk