Budget: £180M to fund new apprenticeships

THE Government responded to growing fears about youth unemployment by announcing a £180 million package to fund 50,000 new apprenticeships over the next three years.

Around 10,000 of the places will be advanced level and higher apprenticeship places, focused on small and medium-sized firms.

Chancellor George Osborne said the Government will now be delivering 250,000 more apprenticeships over the next four years compared with the previous Labour administration’s plans.

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The Government said it wanted to support more places than any previous administration as part of its “strong commitment” to improve the skills of workers.

New grant funding will be offered to firms offering advanced and higher level apprenticeship schemes aimed at addressing skills shortages.

Mr Osborne told MPs that one in four firms in Austria, Norway and Germany offered apprenticeships, compared to just one in 10 in England, which he said had to change.

The Chancellor also announced that 100,000 work experience placements will be offered across the UK over the next two years, five times as many as originally planned.

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Latest figures showed that 974,000 people aged between 16 and 24 are unemployed, the highest figure since records began in 1992.

Ben Robinson, chairman of campaign group Youth Fight for Jobs, said: “The Government’s plans for apprenticeships and work experience do not cover the scale of the problem, especially with two and a half million unemployed and youth unemployment at record highs.

“With university and even college ruled out now because of this government, these figures will get worse rather than better. We suspect these work experience measures will be working for your dole, doing jobs for free that were previously paid employment.”