One of his current apprentices, 17-year-old Abi said she knew of people who had left school but had not gone on to work.

“I think a lot of it does actually come down to lockdown. I think because people just kind of sat in the house and they didn’t do anything,” she added.

Peter Cheese, chief executive of HR body the Chartered Institute for Personnel and Development, said the government’s plans were a step in the right direction but called for “more ambition… [to] make apprenticeships a viable alternative to university”.

Business lobby group the CBI said employers would have a key role in delivering jobs and training opportunities, but added there was “no doubt that rising taxes and employment costs will make it more difficult for them to do so”.

The latest official data puts the employment rate at 74.8%, the economic inactivity rate at 21.8%, and the unemployment rate at 4.3% – with 1.49 million people out of work.

However, there have been question marks over the reliability of data on employment due to a decline in the number of people taking part in the official Labour Force Survey.

Recent analysis by the Resolution Foundation think tank suggested the survey had underestimated employment growth since 2019, and overestimated economic inactivity.

The think tank said the government’s employment plans were “full of good intentions” but the “youth guarantee” that every young person has a chance of earning or learning needed to be “cast-iron”.