Ten Thousand Apprenticeship Places To Be Created

At least 10,000 apprenticeships will be created in spite of the contraction in the economy, as the Bill which launched the National Apprenticeship Service was announced last week by John Denham and Ed Balls.

New Government commitments on procurement are expected to see upwards of 7,000 new apprenticeships in construction, while high street giants released plans for large-scale increases in the numbers of apprenticeships they offer.

Sainsbury's, Tesco, Superdrug and Phones 4u have committed to expand massively their numbers of apprentices, to ensure they have the right skills to stay ahead of the competition. Sainsbury's has recently quadrupled the number of apprentices across its stores to 465, Tesco will have a further 800, Superdrug plan a further 1,000 while Phones 4u intends to train at least 1,000 apprentices by next April.

Skills Secretary John Denham said: "This shows that we are well on the way to making apprenticeships a mainstream option for young people who want to get on. We anticipate that one in five of all young people will be undertaking an apprenticeship by the end of the next decade.

"This Government has rescued and rebuilt apprenticeships and seen their numbers dramatically increase over the past 10 years. In 1996-97, just 65,000 people started an apprenticeship. That figure nearly trebled to 184,000 in 2006-07. But we need to go much further, which is precisely why we are investing £1 billion by 2010/11."

Skills Secretary John Denham will today highlight plans to ensure that Government-funded building projects are used to encourage construction firms to employ more apprentices.

The plan is boosted by the recent decision to bring forward capital spending to help the economy recover from the downturn. This year alone, Government Departments and their Agencies will spend more than £7 billion on construction projects including schools, colleges, hospitals and roads.

(JM)