WORCESTER'S MP Robin Walker has meet local construction firms at Parliament in a bid to back apprenticeships.

The event at Westminster aimed to pledge support for creating future construction careers and offer support to the Construction Industry Training Board's I’m Backing Apprenticeships campaign.

Mr Walker joined forces with employers and apprentices to back construction apprenticeships, essential to meeting the required 220,000 new workers it's estimated the industry needs in the next five years. Speakers at the event included skills minister Nick Boles and CITB chairman James Wates.

Mr Walker said: "I was very happy to welcome construction employers and their apprentices to Parliament in order to hear more about CITB’s campaign, as well as to find out how apprenticeships have benefited them personally. Having recently visited apprentices from Malvern scaffolding onsite in Worcester it was great to see that local company here.

“I understand the need for more and better careers advice to better support vocational routes such as apprenticeships and I will be lobbying local schools and colleges to make sure they provide it. We have some great initiatives in Worcestershire such as the Connecting Schools and Businesses programme to make sure this happens and I am looking forward to the opening of a new construction skills centre in the city. Increasing the number of people entering construction in Worcester is vitally important, and I plan to do all I can to ensure my constituents are fully aware of the fantastic opportunities an apprenticeship can offer.”