Prime Minister to transform Further and Higher Education and unlock opportunity for all

• New target for two thirds of young people to get higher level skills, either through university, further education, or a gold standard apprenticeship by age 25
• As Labour renews Britain, young people are to benefit from world-class Further Education system aligned with future jobs market
• Part of Labour's Plan for Change, government will invest nearly £800m extra into funding for 16–19-year-olds next year, supporting an additional 20,000 students and unlocking opportunity for all

Young people across the UK are set to gain the cutting-edge skills needed to succeed in tomorrow's workforce, as the Prime Minister today announced a landmark package of reforms aimed at boosting technical education and placing it on equal footing with university degrees.

Speaking at the Labour Party's Annual Conference, the Prime Minister set out his plan to build a world-class Further Education system that will unlock opportunity across the UK.

At the heart of the Prime Minister's reforms is a decision to scrap the ambition for fifty percent of young people to go to university. Starmer replaced this with a new target: for two-thirds of young people to get higher skills, either through university, further education or taking on a gold standard apprenticeship. This target will include at least ten percent of young people pursuing higher technical education or apprenticeships that the economy needs by 2040, a near doubling of today's figure.

In his speech, the Prime Minister highlighted how these changes will not only help to build a Britain fit for the future, but will mean that technical qualifications, undervalued and overlooked by previous Conservative governments, are afforded the same respect as university degrees. 

Prime Minister Keir Starmer said:

“While you will never hear me denigrate the aspiration to go to university, I don't think the way we currently measure success in education - that ambition to get 50% of kids to uni - I don't think that's right for our times.

“Because if you are a kid or a parent of a kid who chooses an apprenticeship, what does it say to you? Do we genuinely, as a country - afford them the same respect?

“Today I can announce, we will scrap that target and we will replace it with a new ambition that two thirds of our children should go either to university or take on a gold standard apprenticeship.”

Forming part of the government's programme of national renewal, these changes will be underpinned by a drive to raise standards. There will be higher quality teaching in colleges and 14 new Technical Excellence Colleges to equip young people with the technical qualifications or apprenticeships that our economy needs.

To support these reforms, the government will also invest nearly £800m extra into funding for 16–19-year-olds next year (2026-7). Coming from the existing Spending Review settlement, this funding will support an additional 20,000 students and make our Further Education system world-class.

This announcement comes on the penultimate day of the Labour Party's annual conference, where the government has set out how it will be pushing ahead with delivering on the Prime Minister's promise of national renewal to make working people better off. It follows on from plans announced by Chancellor Rachel Reeves to create a new Youth Guarantee, which offers every young person on Universal Credit who has been out of work or education for 18 months guaranteed paid work.

The Prime Minister also announced 14 new Technical Excellence Colleges, focused on high-growth sectors such as advanced manufacturing, clean energy, and digital – giving young people more choice over where and what they study. This builds on the 10 Technical Excellence Colleges already announced for construction and five for defence.

Further detail will be set out in the upcoming Post-16 Skills White Paper.

Ends

Notes to Editors

• Raising standards is central to these reforms. Colleges expected to deliver at least 100 hours of face-to-face English and maths teaching for those who haven't passed GCSE, supported by targeted funding and training. The government will also support FE teachers with new structured professional development from initial teacher training through to leadership.

• The sector will be held to account through the new Ofsted framework which will assess how colleges meet the skills needs of their communities and introduce new regional improvement teams in Further Education.

• The target will be inclusive of all study or training at level 4 or above — whether academic, technical or apprenticeships. 

• The reforms also pave the way for a joined-up post-18 education system, with a unified regulator and funding model for Level 4+ courses. FE colleges will gain new awarding powers, and the Lifelong Learning Entitlement will ensure parity in student finance across higher level study FE and HE – opening up opportunities for more learners, including through modular courses tailored to priority skills.

• Skills England analysis found that two-thirds of additional employment demand in priority occupations requires workers with a higher education (level 4 or above) qualification.