Marking National Apprenticeship Week the Prime Minister David Cameron today announced a new round of Government funding to support thousands of apprenticeships up to degree equivalent, helping deliver the world class skills firms need to drive growth. 

From today, businesses and training providers can bid for a share of £6m from the Higher Apprenticeship Fund, which will support the development of thousands of new Higher Apprenticeships in sectors including aerospace, energy and renewable technologies.

The Prime Minister also opened the bidding for the new Employer Ownership pilot, inviting employers in England to apply to access up to £250m of public investment and secure more control over how skills training is designed and delivered.

He also announced that from this week, small firms will be offered an incentive of £1,500 to hire their first young apprentices. This is expected to support up to 40,000 new apprenticeships over the next year.

Britain's last train factory has been saved from imminent closure, preserving 1,600 jobs at the Bombardier plant in Derby. The news came as the chief executive of Rolls-Royce warned that society pays excessive attention to investment bankers and should hold engineers in higher regard.

The Canadian group Bombardier told staff at Derby that the facility would stay open for the time being, though its long-term future was still contingent on winning further contracts.

The announcement is too late to save the 1,200 workers that have already lost their jobs since the government decision to select Germany's Siemens over Bombardier as preferred bidder for the £1.4bn Thameslink trains contract.

Diana Holland, assistant general secretary of the Unite trade union, said: "Bombardier's Derby workforce are highly skilled and make fantastic products. They've had a lot to endure over the past 12 months. Now at least there is some breathing space."  Read more...

The Top Five Cars We Can't Wait to Drive in 2012 

The New Year promises to bring lots of automotive cheer and new sheet metal to Motor Trend’s garage. Below is a list of more than a dozen new vehicles slated to hit the market in 2012, which should be more than enough to keep us busy with drives, tests, and reviews. The Motor Trend staff was tasked with the difficult job of picking their top three cars from the list below that they can’t wait to drive in 2012, and from there we tallied up the Top 5 vote getters.
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The UK's first commercial hydrogen filling station has opened in Swindon.

The opening of the UK's first public refuelling station for hydrogen vehicles in Swindon is part of efforts to create a "hydrogen highway" along the M4 motorway.

It is also seen as an important step in a UK-wide scheme to make hydrogen vehicles a viable alternative to petrol-driven cars.

"A hydrogen car is much cleaner than a conventional car," says Professor Kevin Kendall, a hydrogen and fuel cell expert from Birmingham University.

"This will clean up our cities enormously," he says in an interview with BBC News. "No emissions whatsoever."

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