Government spending is declining, yet the need for jobs and training is higher than ever. The current supply of quality apprenticeships is clearly not sufficient to meet demand and that was highlighted this year when British Telecom received 24,000 applications for only 221 places on its apprenticeship programme. The main obstacle to increasing the number of apprenticeships is getting employers to "buy in" to the idea that investing in training and skills could make a big difference to their business and to the lives of their workers. The author contends that public procurement is the ideal tool to encourage organisations to develop their apprenticeship plans.