 There are more than two and a half thousand apprentices here in West Sussex, a figure that's rising all the time, as more and more young people choose this method of training over full-time education. To find out more, we joined West Sussex County Council's Cabinet Member Jeremy Hunt at Chichester College, where he met 20-year-old Thomas Hamlin, who is currently studying an apprenticeship in stage management. It's quite varied from obviously running sound and setting up sound for shows, to setting up lighting, running lighting, building sets. I also act as a technician for the department, so if anything goes wrong in any of the studios or in the classrooms like sound, I go and sort that out and just help out with anything that needs doing really. Edward Moorcroft is a student at Chichester College on a two-year stage management course. He sees an apprenticeship as being a natural next step for his own progression. I currently do a two-year course and then after that I am thinking of doing an apprenticeship because it puts you in a very practical place for the professional world. Over in First Steps Nursery, recently promoted childcare officer Hannah Pilcher, says her apprenticeship played a key role in her career development. I prefer more hands-on learning, I really thrive on doing the job as I go along and then it's much easier to do my college work that way than if I'd just gone on to college and sort of sat at a desk for five days a week. It's definitely worth giving it a go, the amount you learn so much more than what you could ever learn from textbooks and a teacher just from living that experience. It's definitely always worth giving it a go because you'll learn just so much more. But what did Jeremy Hunt make of his visit to the college to meet apprentices past, present and future? There's some tremendous young people and some talent out there who have chosen the apprenticeship route rather than say university or that sort of route because they know exactly what they want to do and they would rather work through apprenticeship, learn through work. I think apprenticeships are an extremely important part of a career development for young people who particularly want to go into a particular occupation. It means that they can get on-the-job training, they can work, they can get paid while they're working and they can also learn while they're working. So at the end of their apprenticeship they come out with very good qualifications and on-the-job skills and become very employable young people.