The RMI has warmly welcomed Chancellor Gordon Brown's announcement of the setting up of a Modern Apprentice Taskforce – targeted at leading an expansion of the scheme to a nearly a third of young people.

Mike Allmond, MD of the RMI's training arm ReMIT says: “They say they are going to do something about training for young people and that can only be a good thing if it achieves the objective of getting young people into training for the jobs which will appear in the retail motor industry in the near future.”

And he says it represents a welcome change in Government attitude: “It is a sensible move to admit that a significant number of young people would be better off if they take an industry-based apprenticeship rather than being shunted off to university course they are neither suited for nor interested in.”