At the first ever national Modern Apprenticeship (MA) Summit, Minister for Adult Learning and Skills, Ivan Lewis, has championed Modern Apprenticeship, saying: "Modern Apprenticeships are no longer employer specific but industry wide and designed to deliver broader knowledge and understanding with young people trained on a much wider range of projects. The Government and the Learning and Skills Council are putting in extra resources both to attract more young people into modern apprenticeships and to increase the take up amongst employers.

"British business has been criticised in the past for not investing enough in its workforce. This has to change and we have to raise the game of all businesses, large and small, to that of the best. Modern Apprenticeships are part of the solution."

Bryan Sanderson, Chairman of the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) said, "At a business level, MAs are key to providing individual companies with genuine skill development, and real bottom line paybacks. The programme is proving its worth in a wide variety of sectors – in traditional industries as well as in new professions. The programme’s flexibility means that it is suitable both for companies looking to pass on their specialised skills to a new generation of employees, and for companies in fast-moving, high technology sectors where training requirements are constantly evolving."