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Work and Skills

I begin by welcoming the commitment of the Liberal Democrat spokesman, the hon. Member for Rochdale (Paul Rowen), to the Conservative policy of strengthening and increasing the number of apprenticeships. We started doing that in government, as it was Lord David Hunt who came up with modern apprenticeships schemes as a way of improving young people's education. It is something on which the Government, to give them their due, have built, but we would like to expand it still further.