The Newcastle-based business selected the apprentices from a group of eleven trainees who had completed an initial seven-week training programme at the company.

The six young men, aged between 16 and 18, will undertake practical training in the business as well as a Level 3 City & Guilds qualification, which is being provided through a partnership with Baltic Training. Five of the apprentices will work in the R&D department and one will work in digital marketing.

Managing director Faye Stephenson said: "This is all about bringing in young people who may have an interest or passion for this. They may be bedroom coders at home and maybe they haven't had an opportunity to use it or maybe university isn't right for them." 

After the first year, if successful, the apprentices will have the option of continuing on to a Level 4 City & Guilds with the company.

"Hopefully being with us for 12 months and seeing what we are about, they will decide they want to carry on here and eventually become fully fledged members of our development team," Stephenson said. 

Stephenson said that the company had set up what it called the 'Greenhouse Academy' to recruit and train apprentices and ultimately provide Taopix with well-skilled young talent. It follows the success of the company's first two apprentices who have recently taken full-time roles at the business. 

"We're hoping it will give us up to 10 candidates a year to train up and join the business," she added. "R&D is what we are all about, it makes up 75% of what we do. We only sell one product and it's produced entirely from our HQ, so we want to make sure we are bringing the right people on board that we can nurture into invaluable Taopix family members."

Taopix was launched in May 2007 and now employs a 34 staff, turning over around £3m. The business is headquartered in Newcastle and opened an office in France in January this year, which Stephenson said had capacity to grow.