At least 10,000 apprenticeships will be created in spite of the contraction in the economy, as the bill which launches the National Apprenticeship Service was announced last week by John Denham and Ed Balls. New Government commitments 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 Phones4u have committed to expand massively their numbers of apprenticeships, to ensure they have the right skills to stay ahead of the competition. Sainsbury's has recently quadrupled the number of apprenticeships 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 apprenticeships 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 infive of all young people will be undertaking an apprenticeship by the end of the next decade. "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 a lot further , which is why we are investing £1 billion by 2010/11.
"It's great that private sector employers are making such a commitment to, and an investment in, their workforce. We need to do the same in the public sector and must ensure that every pound invested by taxpayers not only helps deliver new infrastructure projects but will help provide the skilled workers needed in the future, and enable more people to build a strong career. Apprenticeships are an excellent way to do this."
Source: Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills, 8/12/08.
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