Vince Cable's department failing on apprenticeships

Last week, Mr Umunna accused the Government of exaggerating its success on apprentices

Business Secretary Vince Cable (Getty)

The Business Department has been accused of an embarrassing failure to hire young apprentices, less than two months after celebrating that it had created 2 million apprentices across British industry since 2010.

Mr Umunna told The Independent: “We’ve seen the historic and trusted apprenticeship brand put at risk as in-work training for existing employees has been rebadged under the apprenticeship label.”

The Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats hit back at Mr Umunna last night, accusing him of making a number of “misleading claims” about their programme.

A Conservative spokesman said that the majority of the 2.1 million apprentices created since the Coalition came to power have been under 25, with an average of 87,000 more young people a year taking this route into work than under the last Labour government. “A majority Conservative government will go even further, creating 3 million more apprenticeships by 2020 so that even more young people get a decent start in life,” he added.

A Lib Dem spokesman said: “Labour has got a cheek criticising apprenticeships. There are now more apprentices than ever before and over 85 per cent more than there were under Labour in England.”