Standing alongside 11 young apprentices, Kent County Council leader Paul Carter proudly pledged to double the number of apprenticeship starts under his watch to more than 22,000 by 2020.

Yet less than a year after launching its Made in Kent campaign, the council has been left redfaced by statistics which show the number of apprentices fell across the county last year.

Figures from the Department for Education show there were 13,340 apprenticeship starts across Kent in the 2016 to 2017 academic year, down 4.3% from 13,940 the year before. Excluding Medway it was down 3.9% from 11,130 to 10,700.

The decline is steeper than the national drop in the number of new apprentices across England over the same period, down 3.6% to 491,300, which was 18,100 less than the previous year.

The council has blamed the decline on the introduction of the apprenticeship levy last April, which charges a 0.5% tax on all companies with a wage bill higher than £3 million.

Companies can claim the money back if they use it to hire an apprentice or train their current staff - with many experts believing most companies have opted for the latter, reducing the number of new starters.

"I think we are in a bit of a transitional time," said Becky Farley, a consultant for MidKent College.

"We have got a lot of changes happening with the funding of apprenticeships which came in last April.

"There has been a bit of a halt on proceedings with the number of new qualifications coming out.

"I think this is a blip and the trend with be that apprenticeships will become a choice for young people and employers."

The drop in the number of new apprentices throws into doubt the government's target for three million people to have started courses by May 2020.

It also raises questions about Kent County Council's ambitious target.

"I think it is an embarrassment for the government," said Tony Allen, a consultant for the National Apprenticeship Show, which attracted 6,500 young people over two days in Kent in March.

"I'm not sure about the target of three million apprenticeships starts by May 2020. Six months ago I thought it was going to happen. I'm not so sure now.

"I think it is an embarrassment for the government..." - Tony Allen, National Apprenticeship Show

"The government has tried to reform the entire apprenticeships programme and tried to raise them up over the last few years to give them some sort of esteem and parity with the academic route.

"That has made employers wait and see a little bit but by the autumn I think we will see an explosion of apprenticeship numbers."

Although apprenticeship numbers have fallen, the Made in Kent campaign has given a boost to the council's image.

The initiative was named regional winner for the South in the Promoting Apprenticeships Campaign of the Year category at the FE Week & AELP AAC Apprenticeship Awards.

Roger Gough, cabinet member for children, young people and education at Kent County Council, said: “Unfortunately, since the introduction of the government’s new apprenticeship levy at the beginning of last year, the number of new apprenticeships nationally has fallen dramatically.

"This has also been the case in Kent, where many employers have chosen to focus on developing their existing workforce rather than taking on new apprentices.

“However, Kent County Council’s Made in Kent campaign has been instrumental in reducing the level of decline in new apprenticeships in the county."