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Conservative Party Conference 2011: David Willets speech; ENGLAND: Manchester: INT David Willetts MP (Minister for Universities and Science) speaking SOT David Willetts MP (Minister for Universities and Science) speech at Conservative Party Conference SOT - Young people have the same ambitions as generations that came before them - to own their own home with a wage that pays the bills, to live in a decent neighbourhood, to raise their kids well, perhaps to save for retirement too. We Conservatives have always shared those ambitions. But under Labour the hopes of many young people were blocked. Even during the boom times youth unemployment was rising. Owning your own home became a distant prospect. Access to the great professions was increasingly restricted to the privileged few. And on top of all this, young people have been left to pay decades of bills for today's public spending. We must give them reasons for hope for the future. We can do it. We are the party of aspiration. Even now, in tough times, we are giving young people the opportunity to achieve their ambitions. Under Labour the routes to riches were to work in the City, win the Lottery, be a celebrity - or of course to be an international peace envoy. Those were for the few, not the many. But there should be other more solid routes to prosperity. I salute those people who have mastered their craft and have made their fortunes by building a business. There's a new word for them - skillionaires, like Anthony Bamford of JCB, Delia Smith and James Dyson. We need more of them. One way people used to work their way up to a well-paid job was through an apprenticeship. That is why at last year's conference I promised we would create 50,000 more apprenticeships in our first year. I have to report that we have not delivered the figure we promised. In our first year we have created not 50,000 extra apprenticeships but 100,000. We have delivered the single biggest increase in app...