Two-thirds of those companies which currently run apprenticeship schemes plan to give more young people in Wales an opportunity to take their first steps into the job market, according to a new report from the CBI.

The 2014 CBI/Pearson Education and Skills Survey, which had 291 respondents, 81 of which have employees in Wales, found that firms have a growing need for higher skills - with 83 per cent expecting demand to increase in the next three to five years.

However, 61 per cent of companies said they were not confident they will be able to access enough highly skilled workers to meet their needs.

The survey identified reforms which would make firms more likely to take on apprentices. These include: creating programmes that are more relevant to business needs (41 per cent); cutting red tape (39 per cent) and routing Welsh Government grants directly to employers (41 per cent).

Emma Watkins, CBI Wales regional director, said: “It’s increasingly clear that Wales faces a shortage in skilled technicians in the years ahead, if we fail to create more chances for young people leaving education and existing workers.

“Apprenticeships can help benefit the Welsh economy but also tackle the scourge of youth unemployment.

“Wales has an important role in the UK’s economic recovery and if we are to build on this, we need a highly skilled workforce to meet growing demand from local firms.

“But we need even more companies to get involved and the Welsh Government can help by cutting more red tape, ensuring the apprenticeship system is truly based on the needs of firms and giving business real purchasing power by putting funding directly in the hands of employers on the ground.”

Peter Lewis, managing director of systems integration firm IAC Ltd, Newport, said: “ Training is not the responsibility of the Government, it is down to the individual companies to make sure that they are building skills for the demands of the future.

“We at IAC Ltd have been training apprentices for more than 25 years and the place is full of ex-apprentices, all of which are skilled, motivated and loyal to the company. We find that by training from an early age we retain staff much better than we ever can by hiring from recruitment agencies. Every company is different, and although colleges and universities provide excellent academic courses, they often fail to liaise with the independent vocational trainers.

“We have been partnering with Newport and District Group Training for the last 15 years and they provide us with NVQ training and accreditation. The University of South Wales provides us with higher educational courses, but we have to co-ordinate both of these organisations to ensure that our people receive the most relevant training for our business. No-one else can do this for you because no-one else knows your business like you do.

“We also provide a huge amount of internal training to fill in the gaps between that received externally. We are also required to communicate with the colleges and NDGTA, to ensure that we are all pulling in the same direction – again, no-one else will be able to do this for you.

“If companies bit the bullet and actually got on with it, they would no doubt see the full benefits for themselves.

"We find that the apprentice route provides us with qualified, dedicated and motivated engineers who have the full range of skills we require for the ever changing industrial market. Kids who are considering university should look at the potential of an apprenticeship. Our apprentices get to Honours Degree status within seven years and Chartered Engineer status in another three. The university route produces a generally trained engineer who then has to look for several years’ experience in industry before being a useful employee. Our apprentices reach this same point in the same overall time, but they are paid on the way and do not then have a huge loan to hang like a millstone around their neck for years.

“As for education, what we seem to have now is an education industry which is trying to attract people into higher education with little or no planning for what we will require in the future. This process starts in school where kids are pushed into courses which will yield the most passes at exam time, rather than a joined up approach which gives them the portfolio to go on to do a course to prepare for work.

“Some of the courses being offered at university level offer little or no opportunity to graduates to find employment. Once again, they are in a competitive market, offering what people would like to do rather than something with a lifetime prospect of useful employment. This is the result of years of tinkering by governments, red and blue, trying to make the system more accountable. Quotas and league tables do nothing for the country as a whole and just to tend polarise the system, with good schools attracting the best students and poor schools being left with the rest.”