Youth unemployment is one of the biggest challenges facing the UK economy today.

There are currently a million young people without work in the UK. It is a particular challenge for this region, where one in every four unemployed is under 25 years of age.

There is the risk they will become a ‘lost generation’, spending a life feeling there are no opportunities for them and relying on benefits to get by. Not feeling like you have a stake in society can only add to the tensions seen around the time of the summer lootings.

As the public sector sheds jobs in record numbers, it is now clear that private sector employment is critical. Of course, employers will only create jobs when they have or can foresee work that needs doing. However, employers can be incentivised to plan ahead for their work-force needs by government offering sensible support in the area of workforce development and training.

Inducements to take on new people in terms of tax breaks and the like will have a limited impact if there is no work for them to do. The business may benefit by not having to pay as much to HMRC, but the new employee could be sat around doing nothing all day just earning minimum wage. It’s a zero sum game.

However, there is an alternative. One that allows firms to recruit young people and build up their skills ready for when the economy revives – apprenticeships.

For many, the word ‘apprentice’ conjures up one of two images: A youngster learning a trade in a soot-filled factory or Lord Sugar bellowing across a shiny boardroom table at a group of smart-suited 20-somethings, as much in thrall of being famous as they are of being successful in business.

Neither is a particularly helpful image but thankfully neither is a true reflection of modern-day apprenticeships.

Apprenticeships are about longer-term planning and ensuring the right skills are instilled early as part of career-long learning.

As manufacturing and engineering in this country declined, so too did the number of apprenticeships in industry. But where they do still exist, they are still an important part of the business and vital if we are to pass down skills and techniques to the next generation. The emerging industrialised nations around the world may have cheap labour, but they are largely unskilled. That’s why it’s important the UK keeps its advantage of a skilled and innovative manufacturing workforce, even if it can no longer compete with labour costs and economies of scale. The recent job creation announcements by Jaguar Land Rover being a great local example.

Over the coming years apprenticeships in all sectors are expected to increase in popularity as rising tuition fees and the prospect of heavier student debt encourage young people to explore options other than those in higher education.

Apprenticeships in the professional and financial sector (which despite the financial crisis of 2008, still accounts for nearly 30 per cent of Birmingham’s economy) are a relatively rare but growing trend and increasingly important. Here in Birmingham, one of our leading financial services firms has not only launched an apprenticeship scheme in recent years but also expanded it due to its success.