I suppose the benefit of any apprenticeship is that 'industry' is recruiting, training, paying and supporting youngsters in skills that are needed.
Contrast that with Bliar's army of overqualified university graduates with little hope of employment and £20k student loans.
However this 'modern apprenticeship' is easy to criticise. It is very much 'on-the-job training', amassing reams of tick box exercises leading to NVQ's and return to Cosford for further training. It's hard to avoid putting them on tea bar or gate guard
Nevertheless, the youngsters seem to have a path mapped out for them.
At the workface, it can happen that a seemingly clueless youngster will throw himself into a brake unit change (at 100% supervision) and then photocopy the maintenance paperwork to add to his NVQ Assessor portfolio.