A Government minister revved with enthusiasm as students assembled a Caterham car during his visit to East Kent College yesterday.

Nick Boles, the Minister of State for the Department for Education, said: “I am very envious of who will own that car when it’s finished.

“Those students are working on a real project on a high profile prestige brand.

“It’s great to see because it makes them feel like their skills are being valued and they are developing into being a useful part of the workplace through projects such as this.”

In South Thanet there were 360 new apprentices starting in 2009/10 and the figure has more than doubled with 730 starting in 2013/14.

Mr Boles toured the Broadstairs college campus with Thanet South prospective parliamentary candidate Craig Mackinlay.

And he said that apprenticeships were “the way forward”.

He said: “I am here to support Craig in getting the message out there that apprenticeships are a great innovation and we need more of them.

“Increasingly young people are looking to apprenticeships as their next step.

“The immediate transition between education and the workplace with hands on experience is a way to help with the economic recovery and get young people in to work.

“I think it’s clear to see from those figures that apprenticeships are the way forward and help the pockets of Kent that aren’t quite as prosperous.”

East Kent College principal Graham Razey said: “A lot of students are much better off working in a real environment and everybody should know that they can do them.

“The challenge for us is that 93% of businesses in this area are small.

“This means that it is not as easy to make partnerships for apprentice opportunities as it is with larger companies.”

Mr Boles claimed there was a need to persuade employers to take on apprentices by offering apprentice grants.

He said: “The government offers grants of up to £1,500 for employers of small businesses to take on apprentices depending on the number of employees and size of their business.

“Since the start of this government two million apprenticeships have been created across the country and David Cameron has announced an intention to create three million more.

“With these new high apprenticeships students will be given a year instead of six months to work in a job.

“This will mean that students do not necessarily have to finish at level two but can finish with a degree or equivalent depending on the framework of their course.”