The latest edition of business magazine Punchline has a special Christmas present inside - the whereabouts of 260 apprenticeships in Gloucestershire in 2019.

And that is a conservative estimate of how many the vacancies the firm's we list in what in our 50 Gloucestershire Apprenticeship Champions list.

We put the list of firms together with the help of the county's leading apprenticeship training centres - including Gloucestershire College, the University of Gloucestershire, Gloucestershire Engineering Training and SGS College.

Our aim was to gather a cross-section of businesses big and small from across the diverse sectors within the county who have shown an outstanding commitment to apprenticeships.

Once we had done that, and whittled it down to 50, we began calling and emailing and a majority were able to tell us just how many positions they might be creating in 2019.

Rather than keep that to ourselves we decided to include that too - which makes, we think, for a list that not only champions county business but is of value to those seeking to train with the very best in Gloucestershire.

"You may not have got your hands on a copy yet - because deliveries are only just about to start - but we are printing some extra copies to deliver to schools too," said Mark Owen, the editor of the bi-monthly business magazine that is Punchline.

"We don't think anyone has ever done this before and we think it will be of real value.

"There has been a lot of talk about keeping young people in the county and offering those already here the opportunity to train and remain here to help our economy grow. We think this publication will actually join up some of those dots for people.

"But most of all the aim is to continue doing what we do - championing the great businesses that help make this county such a wonderful place to live and work."

Keep your eyes peeled for copies at business parks, high streets and in companies that matter across Gloucestershire over the next few days.

If you think you should be featured in an apprenticeship special edition please email andy@moosemarketingandpr.co.uk .

If you think you should be in February's annual edition please contact mark@moosemarketingandpr.co.uk .

If you think you should be in 2019's Gloucestershire's 100 Biggest Employers (firms with staff numbers of 80 or more) please email beth@moosemarketingandpr.co.uk .