Mr Anderson continued,

‘This list demonstrates that university isn’t the only option available to young people, apprenticeships offer a great opportunity to ‘earn and learn’ and provides a foot hold on the starting rung of the chosen career ladder.

JCB Chairman, Lord Bamford, tops the list with an estimated worth of £3.2 billion. He began his career with a two-year apprenticeship at Massey Ferguson.

Interestingly for our sector, 9 out of the 40 people named on the list began their career with an engineering apprenticeship including Phones 4 U founder, John Caudwell.

Celebrities including Jamie Oliver, David Beckham, Ozzy Osbourne and Eric Clapton also feature and maybe this is just the kind of publicity we need to get both young people and their parents to recognise the role that apprenticeships can play.’

During National Apprenticeship week 9th – 13th March ICOM will be highlighting the career profiles of current apprentices and those who started their careers via apprenticeships.

Follow using #NAW2015, #GetInGoFar, #Career, #engineeringselfie and #ImAnEngineer

View career profiles here