Breakthrough for apprenticeships campaigners?

London - The Government looks set to offer support to process sector apprentices who lose their training during the recession.

The move would mark a breakthrough for a long-running industry campaign, led by George Ritchie, senior vice-president HR, IT and industrial park services at North East utilities company Sembcorp.

Ritchie along with Philip Jones, CEO of the National Skills Academy Proceess Industries, Ian Findlay of Nepic, and Dari Taylor, Labour MP for Stockton South have been lobbying ministers hard on the issue over recent months.

Progress on this front came at a brief meeting with business and skills minister Lord Young during a 9 June apprenticeships forum in Gateshead, which was also hosted by schools minister Iain Wright and Sir Alan Sugar, the government’s new enterprise tsar.

According to Ritchie, the discussions with Lord Young and subsequent talks with National Apprenticeship Service officials led to a promise to come with both short-term and longer-term solutions to the problem, as well as a tender for EU Social Fund support.