Hire apprentices, Cable urges businesses

UK businesses should help drive economic growth by hiring apprentices in order to create a new generation of skilled workers, the government has urged.

Business secretary Vince Cable and skills minister John Hayes called on employers to follow the example set by British Gas, Superdrug and Procter and Gamble, which plan to create thousands of new apprenticeship places this year.

Dr Cable also welcomed British Airways' decision to expand its successful engineering apprenticeship scheme, which will take on 120 students this year, allowing them to become full time employees of the company.

The ministers also reaffirmed the government's pledge to boost the budget for apprenticeships to over £1,400 million in 2011-12 and expressed a desire to collaborate with businesses to deliver 100,000 more apprentices by 2014.

According to the business secretary, "more than 30 per cent of Rolls-Royce apprentices have progressed to senior management roles within the company" and the majority of firms benefit from the schemes as well.

High youth unemployment is one of the issues the government is trying to tackle with its apprenticeship initiative.