Shadow business secretary, John Denham, has unveiled a ‘jobs for contracts' plan, under which any company seeking public sector work, including construction projects, would have to prove it had an apprentice scheme in place.
Mr Denham said Whitehall and the wider public sector should leverage its annual £220bn spend on goods and services to demand private sector suppliers help young people improve their skills and get good jobs at a time when record numbers are out of work.
