Brown's on Apprenticeships

According to the "key deliverables for 2009/10" document of Gordon Brown's latest relaunch, "Building Britain's Future", on the matter of "Real Help Now" there will be,

An extra 35,000 apprentices start work bringing the total to over 250,000

Now, this is not a new announcement, it was first made in January this year (BBC News), but what else has Brown said on the subject of apprenticeships?

Well, twelve months before that in January 2008, he said,

"Our first step is to get 90,000 more young people taking part in apprenticeships by 2013" Downing Street

Six months prior to that, in June 2007, he said, in his Mansion House speech,

"For those who need more support we will provide pre-apprenticeship courses as a stepping stone to a full apprenticeship of which there will, over time, be 500,000." (HM Treasury)

Three years previously in May 2004, he said,

"Apprenticeships, which were dying a few years ago, have now already risen to 255,500 in England." (BBC News)

And then, in his June 2002 Mansion house speech he said,

"Apprenticeships, which a few years ago were dying, have risen in number to 227,000 today, increasing to over 300,000 by 2004." (HM Treasury)

So, just like with his projected borrowing figures, he changes as often as the wind blows.

Update: Research and quotes for this post were inspired by a comment in this post that noted the 2002 Mansion House speech. I have quite rightly been taken to task for not mentioning this below.