‘Apprenticeships are not a second-best option. We have to make sure they aren’t treated as such’

The government is determined to turn the tide on the scandal of youth unemployment, recognising that the system itself must change, a message repeated in the government-commissioned Young People and Work report led by Alan Milburn.

The report makes for sobering reading, with almost a million young people left in limbo. It outlines how dysfunctional and disconnected the system has become. We are paying more for worse outcomes, and that must change.

Apprenticeships remain one of the most effective routes into a good career, providing pride, dignity and security for working-class young people. Yet they have been undermined by the false perception they are second best to university education.

The facts speak for themselves. Starts for 16 to 24-year-olds have fallen by 35% since the Apprenticeship Levy was introduced nearly a decade ago, while Level 2 starts for young people have dropped by 68%.

READ MORE: The Milburn Review exposes a generational crisis

There are signs of renewed focus. The government has announced plans for 50,000 additional apprenticeships alongside reforms to the skills system and half a million “Earn and Learn” opportunities to help young people build foundations for work and progression, as well as better employer support for training costs.

But it remains part of the problem that too many young people are still being pushed through systems that do not work for them. The insistence on English and Maths resits can deter school leavers desperate to escape classrooms where they have often been made to feel inadequate.

Today’s young people face challenges in a world that is hyper-connected digitally while increasingly socially isolated. For too long it has been easier to blame young people themselves than confront the failures of the system they are expected to navigate.

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I was proud to become an apprentice technician on leaving school, and prouder still that our sons have followed the same path, the youngest only recently starting as an apprentice mechanic. But one thing remains true across thirty years: apprenticeships are not integrated well enough into the education system or valued for the opportunities they provide.

That failure is clear in the transition from school into work. In 2024, only 16% of the 99,380 apprenticeship vacancies advertised appeared during the two months when young people were leaving school. At the same time, young people are required to remain in education, employment or training until the age of 18. That means pushing school leavers onto courses they may have little interest in, only for many to leave once an apprenticeship opportunity presents. Others disappear from the system altogether. It is costly, inefficient and avoidable.

But this is not the only cultural and structural change needed. Whitehall cannot continue trying to govern a labour market and economy as diverse as ours from the centre. Devolution is transformative because it allows a place to rally for its people, and it is self-evident that local leaders, mayors and skills providers, working alongside employers, understand the needs of their communities far better.

We are not starting from scratch. Greater Manchester, the West Midlands, West Yorkshire and others are already investing in skills hubs, technical routes and stronger alignment between employers and training providers. Yet with greater flexibility to design pathways, courses and support, they could do more.

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The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Bill offers the route to go further through “devolution by default”, giving local areas the right to request powers over employment, apprenticeships and skills. Now it’s time to embrace it.

Labour, as the party of working people, knows that a country and its economy can only thrive if it values the workers who power it. If we fail to invest in young people, the cost of failure will always be greater.

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