For the roughly 64% of young people who do not go to university, apprenticeships are vital gateways to the world of work. The way that funding has flowed away from them and towards older workers in recent years was flagged as a problem in the interim report from Alan Milburn’s review on young people and work in May. Mr Milburn’s recommendations are still some months off. Apprenticeships are not solely for school‑leavers: people of all ages should be able to apply for paid trainee posts. But it is clear that the way incentives in the system have tilted against younger adults is one reason behind the huge rise in the number who are not in education or jobs.
The positive signs are that ministers will not wait for Mr Milburn to do something about this. A letter from Jacqui Smith, the skills minister, to the recently formed agency Skills England, last month, asked for urgent advice about which apprenticeship programmes should receive funding increases. It also announced an ambition for 50,000 more young apprentices, annually, by March 2029 – reversing almost half of the decade-long decline.
