Nearly 3,000 more apprenticeship places are to be made available to young people after the government unveiled an £11m funding package in a bid to increase the number of training opportunities.

A range of 16 businesses across the country that already offer apprenticeships, including sport and leisure companies, will be entitled to receive a share of the investment over the next two years, announced by skills secretary John Denham and schools secretary Ed Balls. Nearly 60 per cent of the funding will be targeted towards training young people between 16 and 18 years old, while the majority of the remaining cash will be used to support 19 to 24-year old apprentices.

It is hoped that the additional investment will contribute towards the government's £140m plans to fund an extra 35,000 training places across the public and private sectors. Balls said: "We will not sit back during the current downturn or cut our investment when the priority is to build a talented, skilled and motivated workforce for the future.

"That's why we are running a major campaign, fronted by Sir Alan Sugar, to increase the number of employers with apprentice places and are legislating to give a statutory entitlement to an apprenticeship to suitably qualified young people and adults." Denham added: "The businesses we have signed agreements with will be able to train more apprentices, thanks to the £11 million of funding, and will have a skilled workforce improving the strength of the sector as a whole."