UCU supports Ed Miliband's call for government contracts to include apprenticeships programme

The union, which represents staff in post-16 education, called for a culture change from British business towards education and training, which it said would be only be achieved through greater incentivisation of companies to invest in their staff.Statistics show that, left to their own devices, a third of companies do not train their staff.

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'We support the principle suggested by Ed Miliband that public contracts should come with the responsibility of employing apprentices with decent terms and conditions.

'We need to bring about a culture change in British business towards education and training and that can only be achieved through greater incentivisation of companies to invest in their staff. History has shown us that given a choice in the matter, employers won't necessarily choose to invest in training. All political parties need to bite the bullet and create greater incentivisation for employers to train, which would hugely benefit our young people and working adults.

'We don't believe it is sensible for education and training policy to become enmeshed with immigration policy. We should instead focus on making our apprenticeship offer as attractive as possible so that companies want to be involved.'