The cash will be shared among businesses that already have a proven track record in offering high-quality apprenticeships, Skills Secretary John Denham and Children's Secretary Ed Balls said.
It will mean around 3,000 new apprentices being trained at 16 firms over the next two years.
Close to 60 per cent of the funding will be targeted at 16- to 18-year-olds with the majority of the remaining support going to apprenticeships for 19- to 24-year-olds.
Children's Secretary Ed Balls said: "We will not sit back during the current downturn or cut our investment when the priority is to build a talented, skilled and motivated workforce for the future."
The move will help deliver on the government's recent commitment to fund an extra 35,000 places across the public and private sectors backed by £140m of funding.
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