New figures show, in the face of growing youth unemployment, vacancies for digital jobs is set to widen in the next year.

Data from Burning Glass, an employment statistics company, show there are currently 5,654 web development jobs available in London with vacancies expected to rise to 20,000 by next year.

Meanwhile, unemployment for 16-24 year olds is running at 102,000 in the capital.

With thousands of job vacancies in tech only set to rise, one potential London mayoral candidate has pledged more than 150 places on web coding courses if elected.

David Lammy has committed to creating the places as part of a scheme to train 5,000 youngsters annually, which he says can be funded by private companies in the industry willing to invest in the future generation.

Web developers and coders can expect to earn between £43,000 and £53,000 per year.

Mr Lammy said: “These are the sort of wages that youngsters will need to be paid if they have any hope of staying in London, never mind getting a foot on the property ladder”.

He said the scheme would be in collaboration with the Iron Yard coding school in Clerkenwell and east London.

David added: “There are two aspects to my plan. We have to get young people in London coding more and understanding what lies behind so many of the web applications and internet sites that we rely on if we are going to equip them to have the jobs of the next generation. Almost 40 per cent of the jobs children who are currently in primary school will do have not yet been invented, this is the best way to understand what is next.

“The second thing is to bring back night school to London.

“Organisations like The Iron Yard are the night schools of the 21st century. This scheme will not only train thousands every year but it will create a home grown army of entrepreneurs and a gene pool of the very best talent which will maintain London as the leading global tech hub.”

He added: “London was built on evening classes for ordinary working people to able to skill-up and access better jobs. Now, apart from Birkbeck and a couple of others in central London, we aren’t seeing the depth and range of night courses, particularly in key parts of the economy like tech.”

Eric Dodds, CMO, The Iron Yard, said: “Developers are the lifeblood of the tech boom and London doesn’t have enough of them. Sixteen to 24-year-olds are no strangers to tech through gaming and smartphones, so getting them coding will change lives and widen the tech community beyond the Silicon Roundabout”.