Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson Labour is ‘backing the next generation by giving young people more opportunities to learn a trade, earn a wage and achieve and thrive’
More brickies, carpenters and healthcare support workers will be trained up under plans to increase workers’ skills and boost career routes.
Some 120,000 new opportunities will be created for British young people as ministers drive efforts to end the reliance on overseas workers. Nearly 50,000 training places will be funded by hiking the charge paid by employers for bringing in foreign workers by a third.
The apprenticeship budget for 2025-26 is more than £3billion – up from last year’s £2.73billion. It is the first time the funding pot has exceeded £3bn.
Among measures announced, the Department for Education has pledged £136million for skills bootcamps. The bootcamps take up to 16 weeks to complete, with many offering a qualification at the end or a leg-up onto a career path.
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Hundreds of different schemes are available for young adults over age 19 across areas including early years, HGV driving and software development. Another £100million has been pledged for over four years to expand bootcamps specifically for construction.
Mayors will also be able to support 5,000 additional adult construction trainees, with £14million in skills funding to be handed down to local authorities for the next academic year. Ten technical excellence colleges specialising in construction skills will also open in September.
Funding will also be redirected away from masters-level apprenticeships from January(2026) towards training at lower levels, where it can have a bigger impact in supporting youngsters into the workforce. Support will be maintained for those aged 16-21 and existing apprentices.
Elsewhere ministers will implement a 32% increase in the Immigration Skills Charge (ISC), which will deliver up to 45,000 additional training places to “upskill the domestic workforce and reduce reliance on migration in priority sectors”.
The ISC is a fee that UK employers pay when sponsoring skilled overseas workers under certain visa routes. Increasing it makes it more expensive to hire foreign staff, encouraging businesses to hire British workers.
Some one in eight 16-24 year olds are not in employment, education or training. It comes amid a dramatic fall in the number of apprenticeship starts over the last decade.
Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said “a skilled workforce is the key to steering the economy forward”. “We’re backing the next generation by giving young people more opportunities to learn a trade, earn a wage and achieve and thrive,” she said.
“Everyone has a role to play in a thriving economy, and we’re taking our responsibility seriously providing more routes into employment, it’s now the responsibility of young people to take them.”
Sarah Yong, director of policy and public affairs at the Youth Futures Foundation, said: “International evidence shows apprenticeships are a highly impactful way to support young people to prepare for and access jobs, yet participation among under-25s, especially the most marginalised, has declined in recent years.
“With stubbornly high youth unemployment and inactivity, rebalancing the apprenticeship system can encourage investment in youth apprenticeships and is a first step in enabling more young people to access good work.”
The Law Society urged the Government to continue to fund masters-level apprenticeships for those aged over 21.
The society’s president Richard Atkinson said: “Level 7 solicitor apprenticeships continue to be the only route outside of university to qualify as a solicitor due to specific qualifications set by the Solicitors Regulation Authority. Apprenticeships play a vital role in promoting social mobility.”
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