MP calls on business to keep backing apprenticeships

South Lakes MP Tim Farron has urged employers to keep investing in local young people by hiring them as apprentices.

New research done by the House of Commons Library revealed there were 520,600 apprenticeship starts across the UK in 2011/12. This is 63,400 more than the number of starts in the 2010/11 academic year, and 240,900 more than in the 2009/10 academic year.

Much of this increase is due to many more people aged 25 and over starting apprenticeships. Tim has also welcomed the news that a majority of apprenticeship starters were female.

Figures released by the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills show that 260 new apprenticeships were created in Westmorland in 2011/12. In total an extra 2,109 apprenticeships have been created in Cumbria since 2009. In Westmorland & Lonsdale the number of apprentices has risen by 96% since 2009, with 760 apprentices in work in 2011/12. In 2005 only 270 apprenticeship places were available in Westmorland and Lonsdale.

Tim said: "Degrees are great, but they are not the only way to get on in life. Learning skills and developing experience in whatever way is good for you is far more important."

"I want to thank local businesses who have taken on an apprentice. It really makes a massive difference. More young people across the South Lakes than ever before now have the opportunity to benefit from a variety of apprenticeships. I want us to build on this success and do even more to help our local young people."