BURNLEY MP Gordon Birtwistle has written to the man in charge of the BBC asking for the chance to film a documentary on ‘real apprentices’.

The Liberal Democrat, a government apprenticeship ambassador, said Lord Sugar’s The Apprentice was ‘a lot of self-promoting junk’.

Mr Birtwistle spoke out after Vince Cable, the Secretary of State for business, innovation and skills, told a national newspaper that the prime-time BBC show gave a ‘completely false impression’ of apprenticeships.

He said he had written twice to Lord Hall, the corporation’s director general, with the offer of an alternative series set in Lancashire.

Mr Birtwistle, who is also chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Apprenticeships Group, said: “The Real Apprentice would be based in a real industry with a real job to show for it afterwards, not a lot of self-promoting junk you see from the people on the current show.

“It’s not real life. It’s good entertainment but it’s not really the real world. Real apprentices work hard for three years to get real jobs.

“I’ve met hundreds of people working in aerospace, motoring, retail and banking who are studying hard to boost the economy and benefit the country.

“I’m still awaiting a response from Lord Hall but if I do get the go-ahead I’ll be looking for local people who have great success stories to tell.”

Mr Birtwistle, who remains a Coal Clough with Deerplay councillor, said that more needed to be done to make bright youngsters aware that apprenticeships were a viable alternative to university. He said: “I’ve come across examples of people being told they are too smart to do engineering apprenticeships and told to become doctors.

“And yet a number of apprentices I know have gone on to get much better jobs than their friends who went down the university route.

“It’s important to make people aware of their options.”