Written question asked by Lord Wakeham (Conservative), in the House of Lords. It was answered by Lord Triesman (Labour) on Thursday, 6 December 2007.

Apprenticeships

Question: asked Her Majesty's Government:What is the present best estimate of the excess of demand for apprenticeship places over supply.

Answer: We have no information on how many aspiring apprentices fail to obtain an apprenticeship place. However, rises over recent years in numbers of apprentices participating and numbers of employers offering places informed our recent commitment to a major expansion of the apprenticeship programme, with funding to increase overall places from 250,000 today to more than 400,000 by 2010-11, provided high quality employer places are available. We expect that the new national matching service, to be introduced online in 2008, will greatly reduce the risk of young people failing to find a suitable apprenticeship place.

Secondary information