The Vince Cable apprentice: "You're hired!"

Lord Sugar's catchphrase for the TV series The Apprentice was "You're fired!" But Vince Cable wants to stand that on its head.

EDF Apprentices Will Vickers and Jordan Crowe

The Business Secretary said he was inspired by the energy and enthusiasm of the apprentices he met in Hampshire today. They've been taken on by Network Rail and the energy company EDF, gaining two years basic engineering training at the Navy's HMS Sultan alongside work on real railways and power stations.

"As a country we're very short of engineers," he said. "Foreign investors coming to Britain often make that point. We need to do more on skilled training, but a lot of private companies will see this as being in their own interests."

With £1.4 billion of government money he says the the real life apprentice is now more likely to hear that they're "hired" - or are they?

In the South of England the demand for apprenticeships far exceeds supply. Here's the county by county table for applications and opportunities:

Tonight on South Today Rachel McKellar of the National Apprenticeship Service - who provided the figures - said that businesses see apprentices as a good investment: "Apprentices are more motivated, more loyal and more productive" but she agreed that for them to provide opportunities they needed to have confidence in the economy.

The Southampton MP John Denham is Vince Cable's Labour Shadow. Whilst acknowledging the continuing level of investment in apprentices, he questioned the coalition's commitment, saying, "They are ending the guaranteed apprenticeship for every 16-18 year old who wants one. Labour accepts the need to make savings in the wider adult skills budget, but taking away training from more than 500,000 people a year - as the government are doing - is an example of this Tory-led government going too far and too fast."

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