Government change course to go big on apprenticeships

SCLO MD Steve O’Hare has welcomed new Government plans to pump up to £800m into education for 16 to 19-year-olds next year with an enhanced focus on apprenticeships.

Since the premiership of Tony Blair back in the late 90s, Labour had targeted getting half of young adults into universities and higher education.

Speaking at the Labour Party Conference, Prime Minister Kier Starmer said it was time to move on from that, and that the country should be aiming for two-thirds of young people to get higher-level skills, either through university, further education, or what he called a ‘gold standard’ apprenticeship by age 25.

Starmer said: “While you will never hear me denigrate the aspiration to go to university, I don’t think the way we currently measure success in education, that ambition to get 50 per cent of kids to uni, I don’t think that’s right for our times.

Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer

“Because if you are a kid or a parent of a kid who chooses an apprenticeship, what does it say to you? Do we genuinely, as a country, afford them the same respect?

“Today I can announce, we will scrap that target and we will replace it with a new ambition that two-thirds of our children should go either to university or take on a gold standard apprenticeship.”

Welcoming the move, Steve O’Hare said: “It’s great to apprenticeships are now being treated more as an equal partner towards university placements.

“This will be a really positive move and help young people get the support they need.

“It’s really important that these are not just hollow words though and that the funding ends up where the Government says it will.”

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