New Government commitments on procurement are expected to see upwards of 7,000 new apprenticeships in construction, while high street giants released plans for large-scale increases in the numbers of apprenticeships they offer.

Sainsbury's, Tesco, Superdrug and Phones 4u have committed to expand massively their numbers of apprentices. Sainsbury's has recently quadrupled the number of apprentices across its stores to 465, Tesco will have a further 800, Superdrug plan a further 1,000 while Phones 4u intends to train at least 1,000 apprentices by next April.

Skills Secretary John Denham said:

"This shows that we are well on the way to making apprenticeships a mainstream option for young people who want to get on. We anticipate that one in five of all young people will be undertaking an apprenticeship by the end of the next decade.

"This Government has rescued and rebuilt apprenticeships and seen their numbers dramatically increase over the past 10 years. In 1996-97, just 65,000 people started an apprenticeship. That figure nearly trebled to 184,000 in 2006-07. But we need to go much further, which is precisely why we are investing £1 billion by 2010/11.

"It's great that private sector employers are making such a commitment to and an investment in their workforce. We need to do the same in the public sector and must ensure that every pound invested by taxpayers not only helps deliver new infrastructure projects but will also help provide the skilled workers needed in the future and enable more people to build a strong career. Apprenticeships are an excellent way to do this.""