LAST week I joined the former cabinet minister David Miliband to meet a group of businesses in his South Shields constituency to discuss apprenticeships and youth employment.

While we have heard some good news recently about job numbers in the North East, they cannot disguise the worrying rise in unemployment among young people over the past three years.

There is a danger that the unemployment figures breed a kind of complacency that it is easy to find skilled people looking for work.

In fact, long-term skills shortages are still a very real concern for a large number of North East Chamber of Commerce members.

Many manufacturing and engineering businesses that are at the forefront of economic growth at the moment, have major concerns about an ageing workforce which presents a real barrier to sustaining this performance.

In the meantime, a cohort of young people who had the unfortunate accident of reaching working age during a global economic downturn are struggling to get their feet onto the career ladder.

For too many of these people, long-term unemployment may soon become a way of life by default.

Many businesses are actively doing something about this. NECC is working with companies across the North East to help find and place good quality candidates into apprenticeships.

Firms like Lockout Safety are reporting the huge value these young people are bringing. Companies like this which are making this investment should be applauded.

But others still have understandable concerns about making a long-term commitment with a young employee at a time when market conditions remain uncertain.

That's why we need government to work harder to reduce the risk in this investment, including through tax breaks, programmes which better reflect business needs and recognition through public procurement.

At the British Chambers of Commerce conference earlier this year, chancellor George Osborne pledged that the coalition government's backing for extra apprenticeship places would be linked to policies to make it easier for small and medium-sized businesses to take them on.

For the sake of our young people and the long-term health of our businesses, we must see that promise fulfilled.

:: James Ramsbotham, chief executive of the North East Chamber of Commerce