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In yesterday’s budget, George Osborne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, pledged more apprenticeships and other opportunities for young people living in the UK.

Mr Osborne said that the government will provide more grants to encourage small companies to offer UK apprenticeships across a range of work roles and that they were also working on the implementation of apprenticeships at degree level too.

With almost one million young people aged 16 to 24 currently being out of work in the UK, we welcome any initiatives by the government which can help alleviate the stubborn problem of high youth unemployment in Britain.

The recent National Apprenticeship Week earlier in March saw companies of all sizes promising over 20,000 new apprenticeships for young people in the UK, but it is encouraging to see Mr Osborne pledging that the government will still do more to create further apprenticeships and other entry level jobs for students and other young adults.

Addressing the House of Commons yesterday, the Chancellor outlined the government’s aims: “To make sure we give young people the skills they need to get good jobs in this modern world, we’ve doubled the number of apprenticeships and I will extend the grants for smaller businesses to support over 100,000 more. And we’ll now develop new degree level apprenticeships too.”

Reacting to the Chancellor’s budget announcement, John Longworth, director general of the British Chambers of Commerce, said that he was ‘very pleased’ to see Mr Osborne and the government trying to tackle what he calls a ‘huge confidence gap’ which discourages businesses from hiring young people.

“Overcoming that confidence gap means more investment in young people, more apprenticeships, and more jobs, which are critical with more than 900,000 16-to-24-year-olds still out of work,” said Mr Longworth.

We we to offer as many entry level opportunities as we possibly can to students and other young people in the UK, so we have a dedicated section to help you search for entry level jobs. From that page you can find apprenticeships, school leaver programmes and many other options for young people who might not have a wealth of work experience under their belt.