Proud apprentices

THE number of young people completing apprenticeships in Oldham has more than quadrupled in four years, according to new figures.

Numbers have risen from 140 in 2003-04 to 660 last year, MPs have been told.

A breakdown reveals numbers have risen across the borough with the biggest rise in completions in Oldham East and Saddleworth from 70 to 350.

There was a rise from 70 to 310 in Oldham West and Royton and a further hike from 130 to 290 in Ashton which includes Failsworth and Hollinwood.

Oldham East and Saddleworth MP Phil Woolas said: “When I left school getting an apprenticeship was one of the proudest points in a person’s life. We want to see that pride in our young people restored.”

Earlier this month the Government unveiled a new wave of apprenticeships for the public sector to help it reach its target of getting one in five young people into an apprenticeship by 2020.

Under the plan, around 21,000 additional apprenticeships will be created in hospitals, schools and town halls across the country in 2009-10.

Skills Secretary John Denham said the number of apprenticeships over the last decade had risen from 65,000 in 1997 to a quarter of million this year.