Government promises 50,000 new apprenticeships in youth employment push

The government has launched an expansion of youth apprenticeships to 50,000 places over the next three years, in an effort to tackle unemployment among young people.

Sir Keir Starmer said he was "on a mission" to boost training schemes, as he met apprentices at car manufacturer McLaren in Woking, the day after driver Lando Norris won the Formula 1 world champion title.

The number of young people starting apprenticeships has fallen by almost 40% in the past decade, and the figures show nearly a million 16 to 24-year-olds are not in work or learning.

The expansion will include removing the 5% levy on apprentices for under-25s and offering new apprenticeships in AI, hospitality and engineering.

Speaking about his father being an apprentice who "went to night school" to learn how to be a tool-making engineer, Sir Keir said this was "every bit as difficult and complicated" as going to university.

"I went to university and I've always thought that we don't value the two equally - and we should," he said.

"University is a good thing to do, I'm not going to knock it, that's what I did, but being an apprentice is an equally good thing to do, that's what my dad did and he was a highly skilled engineer and tool-maker."

Chancellor Rachel Reeves earmarked £725m over the next three years for the apprenticeship scheme expansion in the Budget, and short courses will be offered from spring next year.

A pilot programme allowing mayors to connect young people with local employers and apprenticeship opportunities will get a £140m chunk of the funding, although it's not yet clear how that money will be used.

Rose Atkinson's 27-year-old daughter has autism and has just graduated with a 2:1 degree in animation, but is now too old to get onto the youth apprenticeship scheme, which cuts off at 25.

"I've asked various organisations about why 25 is the magic number and no-one can give me an answer," she said.

"But for someone who is on the spectrum that doesn't help my daughter - she needs a long tern internship so that her degree is not a waste.

"Disabled young adults have the capacity to work and desperately want to work, especially disabled graduate students but don't stand a chance when its taken them longer than others to get to be graduate."

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