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29th of March 2024
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Labour would guarantee apprenticeships for every school leaver in England who “gets the grades” by 2020, Ed Miliband has said. The pledge comes as Mr Miliband set out his party’s business policies for the general election. He argued better training and higher wages were key to boosting productivity. Tory MP Grant Shapps said his party had pledged to cap benefits further to fund three million apprenticeships. He said: “Gordon Brown already made exactly the same promise when he was in power and then they failed to deliver it. And secondly we actually have already doubled apprenticeships during this parliament. “We’ve said in the next parliament if the Conservatives are re-elected, we will put three million people onto apprenticeships, that’s a massive increase.” But Labour claim the Tory plan does not offer high enough quality training and in many cases consisted of “rebadged” internal training schemes. Labour is talking about an extra 80,000 apprenticeships, with 33,000 to come from one project alone – the HS2 rail line. The party’s “guarantee” would only apply to young people who gain ‘”level 3 qualifications,” which are equivalent to having two A Levels. Those with two A levels would also qualify but not those who have GCSEs only