Innominate,
Quite possibly so, but the whole atmosphere and environment around modern apprenticeships has changed out of all proportion over the last decade. They are now seen as a viable alternative to University and addressing a genuine need for a large number of qualified folk in the engineering field. They are also proving terrifically popular with some of the larger UK companies and numbers are rising steeply year on year. It was UK industry in the 70's and 80's that reduced the number of apprentices massively as part of huge economic cut backs. All that has now changed.