Small businesses 'should be offered incentives for apprentices'

Date: 24th August 2009

The government should offer businesses cash incentives to take out youngsters, the CBI has suggested.

Small businesses should be given financial incentives to take on out-of-work youngsters, it has been recommended.

The Confederation of British Industry (CBI) has stepped up its calls for the creation of thousands of new apprenticeship schemes.

Under the plans put forward by the employers' group, businesses would receive £2,500 towards the cost of taking on and training apprentices, with extra incentives to be given to those small firms that train more youngsters than they will actually need over the long-run.

Richard Lambert, director general of the CBI, said: "We know that the experience of unemployment tends to affect young people more adversely than most other age groups and we must learn from the 1980s when too many were left out of work for too long."

These comments come soon after the CBI reported that 27 per cent of businesses operating in the UK manufacturing sector believe that output volumes are likely to increase over the next three months, though 32 per cent are anticipating further falls.