The Prime Minister is to call on employers, educators and MPs to expand the number and range of apprenticeships for school leavers.

During a visit to a training academy in Buckinghamshire, Cameron will say: ‘Our drive to reform and strengthen apprenticeships, raising standards and making them more rigorous… means that an apprenticeship is increasingly seen as a first choice career move.

‘But we need to challenge ourselves to go even further, that is why I want it to be the new norm for young people to either go to university or into an apprenticeship.’

A recent report by the Centre for Economics and Business Research expects that completed apprenticeships over the next decade could contribute up to £3.4 billion a year in economic gains.

According to estimates from Whitehall, more than 500,000 people started an apprenticeship between 2011 and 2012.

Considering an apprenticeship? Read our latest school leaver profile.