I'm Backing National Apprenticeships Week

I'm a great believer in the importance of apprenticeships, which is why I'm backing National Apprenticeships Week this week. Apprenticeships are a hugely valuable form of work-based training and vocational education and they will play a major part in helping our economy compete in a global economy that places a premium on skills.

There are plenty of excellent examples of apprenticeships being run by businesses throughout North Durham and throughout the North East. And we need to go even further to promote apprenticeships.

That's why, as part of the Get Britain Working programme, we have pledged to create an additional 200,000 apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeship training places over two years. Contrast that ambition to Labour's failure in this area - with a fall in new apprenticeships of more than 20,000 between October 2008 and October 2009.