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.
Setting out the recommendation from his highly awaited final report – which has been delayed until after this month’s budget – the former Labour cabinet minister warned action was required to address a dramatic plunge in the number of youth apprenticeship starts over the past decade.
Against a backdrop of soaring youth unemployment, as few as one in five apprenticeship starts currently go to a 16- to 18-year-old. The number of under-19s enrolling on an apprenticeship has also almost halved in a decade.
The detail comes as Andy Burnham’s government delays Milburn’s full recommendations until at least November, amid concerns in Downing Street that his report could sit uneasily alongside the 28 October budget.
A former minister in Tony Blair’s cabinet, Milburn has signalled that a shake-up of Britain’s benefits system would form a central plank of his report, alongside measures to boost job support, training and apprenticeships.
In response, ministers are exploring plans for sweeping welfare changes, including scrapping a critical disability benefit for under-25s and replacing it with a multibillion-pound package of support to get into work.
Burnham and his chancellor, John Healey, have signalled readiness to stem the government’s rising benefits bill. Other senior Labour figures, including the work and pensions secretary, Pat McFadden, have said there is both a moral case and an economic one to overhaul the welfare system, as the war in the Middle East rattles the public finances.
However, the government is taking a cautious approach to avoid provoking a repeat of the welfare rebellion which forced Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves into an embarrassing and costly U-turn.
Milburn’s review had been scheduled for launch next week.
Sources close to the review confirmed the delay, although downplayed its significance. One said that Downing Street was working to decide how to present the report alongside several other big reviews, including the Timms review into disability benefits, as well as the budget and the prime minister’s 10-year plan for government.
Burnham has promised to tackle the rise in the number of young people not in education, employment or training (Neet) to almost 1 million at the top of his agenda for power, including sweeping changes to retool technical education and apprenticeships.
Currently, as few as 2% of people starting apprenticeships were previously Neet.
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Presenting the details of his pre-apprenticeship plan, Milburn said his call for a new programme in England would be targeted at young people who lack the qualifications, confidence, workplace experience or routines needed to secure and sustain a full apprenticeship.
Delivered mainly through further education colleges, it would combine English and maths with technical learning and hands-on experience with an employer. The proposal would be similar to a one-year pre-vocational pathway in Austria that is designed to prepare young people for progression into apprenticeships.
Other countries with much lower Neet rates than the UK have placed much greater emphasis on vocational routes, including the Netherlands and Austria, where more than half of 15- to 19-year olds in upper-secondary education enrol in vocational programmes.
This month, the government announced an expansion in local apprenticeship services, backed by £100m of funding, in a programme delivered by regional mayors, across two years, to double the number of areas matching young people with local businesses.
Milburn said young people had been told for years to go and get an apprenticeship. “But for many young people there is a gap between leaving school and being ready for a full apprenticeship,” he added.
“They may need to improve their English or maths or get more experience of a workplace. And employers understandably want to know that someone is ready to turn up, learn the job and stick at it.
“I want a new national pre-apprenticeship route. A course done through colleges, combining English and maths, technical training and proper experience with an employer. Geared towards one thing: getting a young person into work.”
