Standard apprenticeships and youth apprenticeships offer in-depth, work-based learning combined with related course work.
If Cameron's aim was sincerely to ease the low paid, that £17bn of proposed cuts might instead have introduced a living wage, abolished the bedroom tax and funded gold-standard apprenticeships and Sure Start children's centres to turn around life chances.
As in a standard German apprenticeship, Maryam's training is financed jointly by the employer and the state.
The first nursing school was established in 1877, following the standard hospital apprenticeship model of the time, and despite the efforts of its founder, it was placed under the jurisdiction of the Medical Council, instead of the Department of Education (18).
Miliband said he would strengthen Britain's training infrastructure by introducing a universal gold standard for apprenticeships and ring-fencing the further education budget to support reform of colleges into new institutes of technical education.
"Labour will create a new universal standard for apprenticeships so that they are qualifications that employers and young people can trust, and use public procurement to create thousands of new apprenticeship opportunities," said the party's higher education spokesman Liam Byrne.
A new business-led body will set standards for apprenticeships Small business rate relief scheme This will be extended for another year – 600,000 small businesses will benefit, said Osborne.
Raising the technical standards of apprenticeships is not a goal to be sniffed at, but if the government wants vocational training qualifications to prosper, it must ensure they stay relevant and within reach of the other, smaller businesses it hopes will provide them.
Adam Marshall, policy director at the British Chambers of Commerce said: "Empowering employers to set standards for apprenticeships is a positive step forward".
