WORCESTER'S MP is calling for the creation of personalised apprenticeships to help disabled people get on - saying it could make a big difference.

Robin Walker wants ministers to investigate the possibility of offering "adapted" apprenticeships to help those with learning difficulties and disabilities.

The Conservative also says autistic people would also stand a better chance of getting work and staying in a job if some of the schemes were specifically designed for them.

Last year the Worcester News revealed how Mr Walker challenged employers across Worcestershire to create 15,000 new apprenticeships by 2020.

It came after the county set itself a target of reaching 10,000 apprenticeships over the five-year period to 2015, but ended up hitting that tally 12 months early.

Recently skills minister Nick Boles said the Government was considering broadening the job schemes out to help employers develop apprenticeship programmes specifically for disabled people.

Mr Walker used a debate in the House of Commons to urge Work and Pensions Secretary Stephen Crabb to take it seriously.

He said: "I was interested to hear some comments from the skills minister recently about the possibilities of adapted apprenticeship frameworks for people with particular disabilities and learning difficulties.

"We recently had a fantastic cross-party debate about autism.

"Does (Mr Crabb) agree that for people with autism, apprenticeships can offer a very good way forward if they are properly designed?"

Mr Crabb told him a group of MPs known as the "accessible apprenticeship taskforce" are looking at this right now, which will report to him.

"I am sure autism will be one of the aspects that we consider," he said.

"The scale of the challenge is demonstrated by the forecasts, and by the way our demographics are changing.

"More and more of us of working age will be living with some kind of health condition in the future that will need to be managed for us to stay healthy in work. "Around 12 million people of working age are already living with at least one long-term condition, and that figure is forecast to rise."

Nationally, Prime Minister wants three million new apprenticeships to be created by 2020.

But in recent months a forthcoming 'apprenticeship levy' has been the subject of some debate, with employers with a pay bill in excess of £3 million each year requiring to pay into it.

The tax will be charged at a rate of 0.5 per cent of the annual payroll, minus a £15,000 allowance.