Extra £85m to back 100,000 apprenticeships

The move builds on the Apprenticeship Grants for Employers Scheme.

Roger Marsh, chairman of the Leeds City Region Local Enterprise Partnership, said: “Following the recent launch of the LEP’s Apprenticeship Challenge with the Duke of York, we are supportive that the Government is going even further to support over 100,000 more apprentices across the country.

“We will continue to work hard and support businesses in the region.”

Meanwhile, the Government said it would support science and innovation as the key drivers of long-term economic growth.

Chancellor George Osborne pledged to invest £42m over five years to set up the Alan Turing Institute. Named after computer pioneer and code-breaker Alan Turing, it will undertake new research in ways of collecting, organising and analysing large sets of data to help businesses improve their manufacturing processes, better target their marketing, and provide more efficient services.

The Government will also invest £74m over five years in a cell therapy manufacturing centre and a graphene innovation centre as part of the UK’s Catapult network to enable large-scale manufacturing of cell therapies for late-stage clinical trials, and provide SMEs with access to new equipment for research and development of novel graphene products.

It will also provide £106m over five years for around 20 new centres for doctoral training – partnerships between universities, businesses and government to research new technologies and train postgraduate students.