A NEW apprenticeship scheme is open to abuse by bosses taking on trainees in dubious skills such as “apprentice sandwich artist,” union Unite warned yesterday.

The union said the scheme, funded by a levy on large employers from April 6, is open to other abuses because the framework for its use is faulty.

But there is a serious risk of bosses establishing “substandard” apprenticeships as a way of clawing back the levy, the union said.

Unite pointed to an advert from sandwich chain Subway which offered a 14-month apprenticeship for “sandwich artists” for £119 a week — or just £3.40 an hour.

Unite acting general secretary Gail Cartmail said: “If unscrupulous employers are subverting the apprenticeship system in any way they need to be named and shamed.

“Apprenticeships need to be a gold standard providing skills for life and not degraded and used as a way of acquiring cheap labour.”