A YOUNG engineer has been revealed as the two millionth apprentice in the UK since the coalition Government came to power.

Paige McConville, 16, from Abingdon, was honoured with a visit by Business Secretary Vince Cable at the Abingon Campus of Abingdon & Witney College.

Miss McConville, one of 16,830 apprentices to start their training in Oxfordshire since 2010, is beginning her four-year apprenticeship in mechanical manufacture engineering.

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Speaking yesterday, Liberal Democrat MP Mr Cable said: “We’ve succeeded because we’ve almost doubled the number of young people going through apprenticeships and the two million mark is a symbol of that.

“The fact that it’s a young woman doing engineering is a symbol of what we should be doing as a country.

“The Oxfordshire area has a lot of advanced technology and high-tech companies and they are going to need good technicians.”

After the visit Miss McConville took Mr Cable on a tour of FMB Oxford in Osney Mead, where she is doing part of her training and hopes one day to work.

The former Didcot Girls School pupil, who accompanied Mr Cable on a visit to No. 10 Downing Street later in the day, said: “It’s crazy, it’s really really lovely. I really enjoyed the day and it’s nice to be able to talk about apprenticeships and to make them more widely known.”

She was inspired to work in engineering by her father, an engineer at Culham Science Centre in south Oxfordshire.

Richard Green, operations director at FMB Oxford, which supplies scientific instruments for research, said: “When she came for the interview we liked what we saw and what she had to say.

“She’s quite a determined individual.”

Abingdon & Witney College said it has increased its numbers of apprentices by 400 per cent over the past three years.

It added it had recruited a record 200 apprentices this year in subjects such as engineering, horticulture, business administration, retail and construction.

It has secured Government funding for a new advanced engineering and technology skills centre at its Abingdon campus and a new construction centre in Witney.

Both are expected to open in 2015.

College principal Teresa Kelly said: “For Oxfordshire to have the two millionth apprentice is a real accolade for us, for the college and for the companies.

“It’s great because it really promotes apprenticeships in Oxfordshire.”

The Business Secretary used his visit yesterday to announce 22 new employer-designed apprenticeships in professions ranging from data analysis to civil engineering to health and social care.

For local apprenticeships, see the website oxfordshire apprenticeships.co.uk

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