MADRID - Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez on Saturday announced the government would invest 1.3 billion euros ($1.43 billion) in vocational training.

The measure will be approved at next week's cabinet meeting and will create 45,000 bilingual vocational training places, 824 new training centres and more than 1,500 classrooms for applied technology and entrepreneurship.

"It is the biggest commitment to vocational training that any government has ever made," Sanchez said during a Socialist Party event in Pamplona.

"We are creating more and better jobs... and the best tool is to bet on quality vocational training, like the most advanced countries in Europe," he said.

The new investment joins the 6.6 billion the government has already invested, Sanchez said.

One of the main aims of the new investment, he said, was to help reduce youth unemployment.

Young Spaniards have already been improvements in the jobs market since a 2021 labour law brought in by Sanchez's left-wing government. ($1 = 0.9074 euros)

(Reporting by Jessica Jones; Editing by Alex Richardson)