Ken Hind vice chairman commented , ''we are being  urged to lift the life-chances of the 1.25 million 16-24 year-olds who are not in education, employment or training, and improve the opportunities of all young people who are in training. 
 

''To boost their hopes, harness their ambitions, and enhance their prospects, a report from the Conservative Party’s Vocational Skills Working Group makes the case for a radical overhaul of state funding for skills training. The aim is to give industry the trainees it needs, and trainees the jobs they want.'' 
 

''The group, which forms part of the Party’s Economic Competitiveness Policy Group, argues that the training system is at present unable to fill Britain’s skills gap because it is an unresponsive, top-down bureaucracy. the recommendations include  a new, demand-led system which would ensure that industry rather than bureaucracies identify the types of training needed by future employers; that the allocation of taxpayer funding to particular courses follows student choice; and that a new careers service guides trainees to courses that lead to real jobs. 
 

''The Group also recommends a new employer-based apprenticeships system which would restore the importance of apprenticeships in the education system.We want to see a better chance for Lancashire young people who have been left on the scrap heap by the mismanagement of the economy by the last Labour government .'' 
 

Commenting on the proposals, John Redwood, the Chairman of the Economic Competitiveness Policy Group, said: “It is a scandal that so many young people are not in jobs or receiving worthwhile training. Our skills system is expensive, bureaucratic and not nearly effective enough. There are too few apprenticeships, too few young people undertaking Level 3 vocational training, and the success rate is too low. We recommend ridding ourselves of the clumsy architecture of the current skills quangos, and replacing it with a system which is driven by student choice and business needs.” 
 

John Hayes, Shadow Minister for Vocational Education, said: “This report tackles the scandal of the 1.25 million 16-24 year olds who are not in education, employment or training – a lost generation that deserves better. To meet this challenge we want to see the value of vocational training elevated within society. In any other field, if only half of those people enrolled on courses completed them, it would  be a national scandal – this is the case with apprenticeships, and it is unacceptable. Apprenticeships must be the right vehicle for boosting skills in the economy and adding value to the organisation and individual involved.”