More than 20,000 apprentices will be taken on across the public services, ministers said. Town halls, hospitals, colleges and universities will all be required to take on school-leavers for on-the-job training.Construction firms, already badly hit by the recession, must employ apprentices if they are awarded contracts under the Building Schools for the Future (BSF) programme.

It is an added complication for the BSF project, which will see every secondary school in the country rebuilt or refurbished by 2020, but has already been beset by delays. It was supposed to cost £45 billion, but earlier this month this was reestimated at £55 billion. All local authorities that award BSF contracts will also have to create apprenticeships.

The 21,000 public services apprenticeships will include 7,500 in local government, working in hospitality, catering and warehousing; 5,000 in the NHS and social care; 2,500 in further education; and 1,000 in Ministry of Defence civilian jobs.

The Tories said, however, that the Government would still fail to meet its target of 130,000 apprenticeships completed by 2010. At the current rate it would take until 2029, they said.

David Willetts, the Shadow Universities Secretary, said there was a “huge gap between ministers’ promises and what they are actually delivering”. He added: “The Government is way off its target for increasing apprenticeships, the number of under25s starting apprenticeships is falling, and there’s a particularly shocking fall in apprenticeships for 16 to 18-year-olds.”

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