THE Government will fail to deliver an ambitious apprenticeship target unless it relents over funding cuts and improves career advice, a report has warned.

The Institute of Motor Industry (IMI) says businesses fear a real struggle in recruiting enough young workers over the next five years to support expansion plans.

The Government aims to help create three million apprenticeships by 2020, though the IMI said Whitehall cuts in education, as well as schools holding on to pupils to maintain funding, will hit colleges and companies as they look to nurture the next generation.

Figures also show apprenticeship numbers have fallen across the country, including the North-East.

Representing the retail motor industry, which is worth more than £150bn a year, the IMI said the sector needs at least 12,000 apprentices annually just to tick over.

However, according to its study, revealed just days before GCSE results are released, careers advice is unhelpful, with schools seen to have little comprehension of the requirements of an apprenticeship.

Steve Nash, IMI chief executive, said: “With funding for education set to be squeezed, employers and training providers in the motor industry are voicing fears they will lose out in the race for the best learners.

“Schools will seek to keep as many paying students in sixth form as possible.

“The Government has pledged to increase the number of apprenticeships to three million by 2020, but with skills shortages starting to appear in every sector of the economy, this looks like a conservative ambition.

“The leaving age problem raises serious questions over its ability to hit even this target without investing in a serious careers advice programme, which it is refusing to do.”

The warning comes after The Northern Echo reported in June how provisional numbers from the Department for Business showed apprenticeships had dropped sharply for a second successive year.

Figures showed 66,000 fewer people started apprenticeships in the last academic year than in 2013/14.

Across the North-East, 26,730 apprenticeships were started in 2014/15, which was down by 3,750 from a year earlier, and a drop of almost 12,000 on the figure for 2011/12.

In Darlington, the provisional year-on-year figure was down 220, while in Stockton there were 460 fewer.

However, a Government spokeswoman told The Northern Echo is was committed to apprenticeships.

She added: "Equipping young people with the knowledge and skills most valued by employers is central to our plan for education.

"We have already delivered two million apprenticeships, and have pledged to deliver three million more by 2020.

"As part of our drive to abolish youth unemployment, we have invested around £7bn in post-16 education to fund an apprenticeship or college place for every teenager who wants one.”