Sir Keir Starmer is set to announce a major investment in apprenticeships on Monday in an effort to tackle rising youth unemployment.

Some 50,000 young people are expected to benefit from the £725 million investment, in which more apprenticeships will be created in sectors including AI, hospitality and engineering.

The Government is aiming to reverse a decline in the number of young people starting apprenticeships, which has fallen by almost 40% in the past decade.

The Prime Minister has also expressed his desire to see apprenticeships treated with the same respect as degree courses.

At this year’s Labour party conference, he said he wanted to see two-thirds of young people study for a degree or an apprenticeship.

Sir Keir said: “For too long, success has been measured by how many young people go to university. That narrow view has held back opportunity and created barriers we need to break.

“If you choose an apprenticeship, you should have the same respect and opportunity as everyone else.”

Sir Keir will mark the announcement with a visit to McLaren’s technology centre near Woking, in Surrey on Monday, where he will meet apprentices and other young people at the start of their careers.

McLaren, whose driver Lando Norris won the Formula 1 championship on Sunday, employs 84 people in its early careers scheme and is developing apprenticeships in a range of areas to increase that number.

The funding, which covers the next three years, includes a commitment to fully fund apprenticeships at small and medium-sized businesses.

It also includes £140 million for regional mayors to link young people not in employment, education or training (Neet) with local apprenticeships.

Ministers have been especially concerned with the rising number of young people classed as Neets, which experts suggest is on course to exceed one million for the first time since the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.

On Sunday, Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden announced an £820 million investment in tackling the Neet problem, including more training and guaranteed jobs for long-term out-of-work young people.

He said: “This funding is a downpayment on young people’s futures and the future of the country, creating real pathways into good jobs and providing work experience, skills training and guaranteed employment.”

The Government is also expected to set out its national youth strategy this week.

Speaking to the BBC’s Sunday With Laura Kuenssberg, Mr McFadden said young people had “not had a good enough deal” in areas such as housing and employment.

He said: “Young people do need a better deal. They need a Government that believes in them.”

New Delhi: The Income Tax Department has issued a fact-check to alert citizens against fake e-mails asking people to download e-PAN card, an official said on Sunday. The fact-check, issued with the help of the Press Information Bureau (PIB), said, “Beware of Fake Emails asking to download e-PAN cards.”

The PIB also circulated a screenshot of showing the phishing e-mail which offered “A step-by-step guide” to download e-PAN card online. The Income Tax Department clarified that it does not request detailed personal information through e-mail.

“Do no respond to any emails, links, calls and SMS asking you to share financial and sensitive information,” the department said. The Income Tax Department added it does not send e-mail requesting your PIN numbers, passwords or similar access information for credit cards, banks or other financial accounts, a statement said.

The Department, in an advisory, said that if people receive an e-mail from someone claiming to be the authorised by Income Tax Department or directing you to an Income Tax website then do not reply and do not open any attachments.

“Attachments may contain malicious code that will infect your computer,” it added. The advisory said, “Do not click on any links. If you click on links in a suspicious e-mail or phishing website then do not enter confidential information like bank account, credit card details.”

It also cautioned citizens against cutting and pasting the link from the message into their browsers as the phishers can make the link look like real, but it may actually send you to different websites.

The Department also said, “Use anti-virus software, anti-spyware, and a firewall and keep them updated. Some phishing e-mails contain software that can harm your computer or track your activities on the internet without your knowledge. Anti-virus and Anti-spyware software and firewall can protect you from inadvertently accepting such unwanted files.”

Encouraging tax-payers to report phishing mails, the I-T Department said, “If you receive a phishing mail not pertaining to the Income Tax Department, forward the same to incident@cert-in.org.in.”

“If you receive an e-mail or find a website you think is pretending to be of Income Tax Department, forward the e-mail or website URL to webmanager@incometax.gov.in​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​. A copy may also be forwarded to incident@cert-in.org.in,” it added.

You may forward the message as received or provide the Internet header of the e-mail, the advisory said. The Internet header has additional information to help us locate the sender. After you forward the e-mail or header information to us, delete the message, the advisory added.

The chief executive officer of the water company involved in a major supply issue in Kent should not resign as issues in the industry go “far wider than individual people”, a director has said.

South East Water (SEW) has issued a “boil water notice” for 24,000 homes in and around Tunbridge Wells who have experienced a loss of water or low pressure since November 29.

On Wednesday the company said the “water quality issues” which caused the initial shutdown had returned.

They have decided to continue pumping water so that people can flush their toilets and shower, but the water cannot be drunk without being boiled first.

Liberal Democrat MP Mike Martin told the BBC earlier this week that it had been “a total failure of leadership” and called for the chief executive of SEW, Dave Hinton, to resign.

Douglas Whitfield, SEW water supply director, said resignation demands “fundamentally misunderstand the challenges that we’ve been facing in this incident as a company over the last few years, as an industry going forward, I don’t think that’s helpful”.

He told BBC Radio Kent: “I would point you to the independent Water Commission that sets out the challenges the water industry are facing and the changes it needs to make.

“They’re far wider than individual company and individual people.”

Mr Whitfield apologised to customers and said the precautionary boil notice was in place for 10 days because “public health is our key priority”.

But he said he was unable to guarantee the problem ensuring water quality would be solved within the 10 days as he was unable to provide a “definitive answer” as to why the water was not responding to normal treatment.

He said: “For the last 24 hours, the treatment process has actually been operating within all of the water quality parameters.

“Until we’re confident that we’ve resolved the issue and that it won’t reoccur, we’ll be working to keep that boil notice in place, until we are confident we can take it off.

“I can confirm all the water we supplied up to the point we put the boil notice on fully complied with all the regulations.”

Mr Whitfield apologised for “overly optimistic” messages put out to customers since the problem started but said this was “one of the most complex events that we’ve ever had”.

He added: “I can only apologise to the customers for the last week and the communications that we gave during the incident were on what we thought was going to happen at the time.

“The incident has changed from what we thought was happening at the weekend to a much longer, much more complicated issue that we’re trying to resolve.”

The Consumer Council for Water (CCW), an independent body representing water consumers across England and Wales, has called for a thorough investigation into the incident.