Five industries - media, hospitality, health, business services and retail - are being targeted in the latest apprenticeships campaign.

The first phase of the campaign, received 11,000 employer responses over four months, yet only six per cent of these were from hospitality employers - compared with engineering and manufacturing which both accounted for 34 per cent of responses in total.

Similarly, only eight per cent were from health and social care employers.

Stephen Gardner director of the Learning and Skills Council, the organisation behind the campaign, said the aim was to prove to employers in those sectors that apprenticeships could play a key role in improving skills and staff retentiopn.

"We are focusing on the sectors that are not only Britain's most important industries, but those where workforce skills make an enormous difference to business performance'" he said. "There is a real desire from young people for diverse careers in these sectors where response from employers has been lower."

He added that the results of the first four months of the advertising campaign highlighted a lack of employer awareness of the wide variety – there are 160 - of apprenticeships available.

* A free employer's pack is available from the apprenticeship website</a. or by calling 08000 150 400.