Create new pre-apprenticeship scheme to close youth unemployment gap, says Milburn

The number of under-19s enrolling on an apprenticeship has also almost halved in a decade. Photograph: Monty Rakusen/Getty Images/Image Source

A national apprenticeship readiness scheme should be introduced in England to close the gap for young people between leaving school and starting work, the government is to be told.

Alan Milburn, who is leading a major review into Britain’s youth jobs crisis, will call for a new “national pre-apprenticeship route” to offer young people further education, training and work experience.