Apprenticeships must provide a vehicle to deliver a vital source of talent if Britain is to become a ’high tech, high skills’ economy, according to the skills minister.

Skills minister John Hayes told Recruiter apprenticeships would become increasingly important “in all kinds of areas” such as engineering, construction, IT, the creative industries and finance.

“As the economy changes the skills needs grow. Britain’s future chances of success lie with the ’high skills high tech’ economy, so what we need is a more skilled workforce,” said Hayes.

The Department for Business Innovation and Skills says it intends for 200,000 people to start apprenticeships in 2014-15.

Individuals benefit along with the economy since they are more likely to get and keep a job if they are skilled.

Apprenticeships also enhance people’s social skills, the lack of which employers have complained about, he said. “The thing about the apprenticeships is that you learn while you are working. The skills you gain in the workplace, a lot of those are social skills; they are skills about getting on with people, about learning about customers.”

The government has committed an extra £250m to the apprenticeship budget between now and 2014, and Hayes says he expects this will boost the number of
apprentices by 105,000 compared with today.

Yet while apprenticeships are set to increase, he didn’t want fewer people to go to university. “We want people to follow their taste and talent, and many people’s taste and talents are practical and vocational.”

Hayes’ comments came in National Apprenticeship Week, when supermarket chain Morrisons announced that this year it would train 12,000 apprentices. BAE Systems also announced it was taking on 290 apprentices this year.