Apprenticeships - Good progress and more to come THIS WEEK I plan to speak on apprenticeships and skills during a debate in the House of Commons, providing, of course, I manage to conclude a pre-arranged meeting about protecting our national heritage early enough to be in the chamber to catch the speaker’s eye.

Significant progress has been made in encouraging apprenticeships.

In Stroud, there were 580 new starts for the year 2010/11, representing a 12 per cent increase on the previous year.

During my frequent visits to factories and, increasingly, firms providing services of all kinds, I have met with apprentices and I have been impressed with their dedication and sense of achievement.

This promising development - powerfully reinforced, for example, by the focus on engineering at Stroud College - bodes well for the Coalition Government’s plans for further investment in training.

For a start, businesses will have direct access to £250 million for vocational training.

With mounting concern over employment prospects for young people and to encourage thousands of small firms (with up to 50 employees) to take on a young apprentice for the first time, the government will offer an incentive payment of up to £1,500.

This will support up to 40,000 new apprentices in 2012/13.

For higher levels of training, the government has announced £18.7m worth of projects from the £25m Higher Apprenticeship Fund.

This will support the development of 19,000 new Higher Apprenticeships, compared to just 100 in 2008/9, in sectors including construction, advanced engineering, insurance and financial services.

The government pays a proportion of the training costs for apprentices - 100 per cent if the apprentice is aged 16-18, 50 per cent if aged 19-24 and up to 50 per cent if aged over 25.

The apprentice’s employer will normally cover any remaining training costs.

Finally, I would like to wish all readers a very happy Christmas and a successful New Year.

If you would like to discuss the issues raised above, please contact me on 01453 751572 or visit my website www.neilcarmichael.co.uk