Concern that Britain's apprenticeships are not helping young people
Hundreds of thousands of people in Britain aged 25 or over are entering apprentice schemes, prompting fears the schemes have lost focus on young people entering the work force.
Hundreds of thousands of people in Britain aged 25 or over are entering apprentice schemes - which can pay just £2.73 (HK$26) an hour - prompting fears the schemes have lost focus on young people entering the work force.
Apprenticeship programmes have become a policy for all three major political parties as a solution to youth unemployment. But figures from the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) show that more than 350,000 of Britain's 851,000 apprentices were over 25, with more than 50,000 aged over 50.
The number of British apprentices has risen from 491,300 in 2009 to 851,500 today - an increase of 73 per cent.
However the proportion of those over 25 has more than doubled - it was 19 per cent of all apprentices in 2009/10, but now stands at 42 per cent.
British Prime Minister David Cameron has pledged to fund a further three million apprenticeships through welfare cuts, having previously stressed the schemes needed to "focus particularly on young people".
