VQ Day has been set up to draw attention to the raft vocational qualifications available to young people, teachers and employers and according to Proskills, there are currently around 3,500 job vacancies in the process and manufacturing sector.

The body cites a lack of available trained candidates as one the main reasons for his employment gap.

According to Terry Watts, chief executive of Proskills, vocational training was becoming ever more attractive at a time when other avenues such as university education fees were turning people away.

He said: "As the backbone of UK manufacturing, with 10,000s of the small companies the government is hoping will help "rebalance" the economy, our sector requires continued support from the government and the creation of more funding and investment in vocational training schemes.

"This will ultimately allow our industries to maintain our status as a strong competitor in the global marketplace."