Henry Smith
Main Page: Henry Smith (Conservative - Crawley)
Mr Prisk
I have just set out that, in fact, the process is under way for the rules and criteria. The location, which is obviously the issue at hand, is one that we will bear in mind when we see the business cases. The key issue is what will deliver the best result for the bank itself.
Henry Smith (Crawley) (Con)
9. How many people in (a) Crawley constituency, (b) the south-east and (c) England have started an apprenticeship in 2011.
The Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills (Vince Cable)
In the first three quarters of this academic year, 550 apprenticeships were started in the Crawley constituency, 41,890 started in the south-east region and 326,700 in England. Overall, that is 114,000 more than last year—more than a 50% increase. By the end of this spending review, there will be funding for 250,000 more adult apprenticeships than were planned by the previous Government.
Henry Smith
I am grateful to the Secretary of State for that answer. Will he join me in congratulating Central Sussex college in my constituency on administering 900 apprenticeship places and Virgin Atlantic Airways on creating 42 highly skilled engineering apprenticeship places in my constituency? Does that not prove that further education and the commercial sector working together can improve the offer for apprenticeships?
Vince Cable
Yes, indeed; it does exactly that. My hon. Friend’s constituency can demonstrate that this is a real success story. There has been a 62% increase in such places in Crawley over the past year. I certainly welcome the news from Virgin Atlantic Airways about engineering apprenticeships. We have had massive shortages in this country at intermediate level and in graduate and postgraduate engineers, and we really now must buckle down to increasing the supply in this and other ways.