Conservatives to double apprenticeships and end ‘debt-trap’ degrees

Today [Wednesday 8^th October 2025] Leader of the Conservative Party Kemi Badenoch MP – in her Leader's speech – will announce plans radically to reform our higher education sector, doubling apprenticeship funding and backing high-value courses for young people.

The next Conservative Government will double funding for apprenticeships so that school leavers have a genuine choice between university and vocational training. The Conservatives will also put an end to the system of ‘debt trap' degrees that offer poor value to students and taxpayers, and instead redirect resources towards worthwhile courses. This will lead to savings that will pay for the doubling of apprenticeship funding. 

While many young people still benefit from university, too many are being pushed towards a degree as the only route to success, even as evidence has mounted that for too many it leads to poor job prospects and high debt.  

This can't be right – young people in Britain deserve a better deal, which is why the Conservatives are throwing out the status quo. 

Analysis by the Institute of Fiscal Studies finds that “total returns [on going to university] will be negative for around 30% of both men and women”. Many graduates earn so little they never repay fully their student loans, leaving the taxpayer to cover over £7 billion in unpaid debt every year in England alone.  

And economist Roger Bootle of Policy Exchange makes clear that, “Just because graduates on average earn more than non-graduates, this does not mean that if you turn the marginal non-graduate into a graduate, their earnings will rise.” It all amounts to a shoddy deal for students, and an expensive failure for the public. 

So we will protect the interests of taxpayers and students by introducing caps on funded courses that consistently lead to poor graduate outcomes. We will introduce controls on student numbers in specific subject groups, so the taxpayer is not left subsidising courses which are leading to low graduate earnings or limited career prospects.  

Places within each subject area will be allocated on the basis of quality and graduate outcomes, as happened before previous controls were abolished. This will reduce the loan repayment losses that are currently written off each year as public spending. Over the course of the Parliament, Ministers will set numbers, which will then be allocated to individual institutions on the basis of quality. 

This will allow us to invest further in the apprenticeship revolution started under the Conservatives and double the budget for apprenticeships. This money will be in addition to employers' apprenticeship levy funds.  

We will use incentives to ensure the increase in the number of apprenticeships is targeted at those in the 18-21 age range, so that no young person is left without a choice for what is best for their future.

Remaining funding will be used to support high-quality courses at our research-intensive British universities.  

All young people deserve the very best chance in life to succeed, and a real alternative if university is not the right path in life for them.  

But unlike Labour, who have only played lip-service to higher education reform with no concrete plans to deliver it – the Conservatives are setting out a plan for how the next Conservative government will deliver it. 

In her speech, Kemi Badenoch is expected to say: 

“Every year thousands of young people go off to University…   

But leave with crippling loans and no real prospects.   

Nearly one in three graduates see no economic return, and every year taxpayers are writing off over £7 billion in unpaid student loans.   

Wasted money, wasted talent…  

A rigged system propping up low-quality courses, while people can't get high-quality apprenticeships that lead to real jobs  

This is personal for me.   

A lot of people know I did two degrees.  

One in engineering. One in law.  

But while I can't remember how to do parallel integration.  

I can remember how to fix a broken computer.   

Which I learnt on my apprenticeship. 

We need more apprenticeships.  

I was working with adults.  

I was paying my own way.  

And it gave me self confidence in a way my university degrees never did. 

And unlike my subsequent university degree, I wasn't still paying off my debts in my early 30s.  

So we will shut down these rip-off courses and use the money to double the apprenticeship budget.   

Giving thousands more young people the chance of a proper start in life.   

Just like I got.” 

Laura Trott MP, Shadow Education Secretary, said: 

“Young people are being badly let down by Labour. Their opportunities are being narrowed with youth unemployment up and rising. 

“Labour have axed almost all higher-level apprenticeships, and too many university courses leave students with little face-time, poor job prospects, and saddled with debts they can never repay. That is a shoddy deal for young people, and for the taxpayer who ends up footing the bill. 

“The Conservatives will change this. We will put an end to debt-trap degrees and double investment in apprenticeships. That way, every young person has a real choice when they leave school, a choice that leads to skills, good jobs, and the chance to succeed in life.” 

ENDS 

Notes to Editors: 

Higher education has dramatically expanded over the past two decades:  

Tony Blair's set an arbitrary target of 50 per cent of young adults entering higher education. In 1999, Tony Blair planned a huge expansion of universities over the following eight years to ensure that at least 50 per cent of young people under the age of 30 participated in higher education (The Guardian, 8 March 1999, link).  

Since then, the number of students attending university has increased dramatically.  The number of English students accepted onto HE courses each year rose from 253,000 to 424,000 between 1997 and 2004. That is twice as many as in 1994. (211,000). (Commons Library, March 2025, link) 

Overexpansion has led to the development of many low-value university degrees that offer poor job prospects, leaving students and taxpayers burdened with spiralling debt: 

Total returns on attending university were negative for students studying in the mid-2000s – and is likely to have worsened since. The IFS concluded the returns of undergraduate degrees for English domiciled students over the course of their working lives who went to university in the mid-2000s and concluded that ‘around 30 per cent of both men and women have negative total returns', meaning their degree did not increase their lifetime earnings enough (or at all) to make up for the cost of their university degree.  The average graduate earnings premium has declined since then. (IFS, Report, 27 February 2020, link). 

One in five students would be financially better off if they skipped higher education. Even ignoring the wider costs to taxpayers, the Institute for Fiscal Studies found that while 80 per cent of former students gained financially from attending university, about 20 per cent earned less than those with similar school results who did not attend, highlighting how some subjects, such as creative arts, offer financial returns (IFS, Report, 27 February 2020, link; The Guardian, 29 February 2020, link).  

Graduates also face some exceptionally high marginal tax rates, further proving that university is not for all. Graduates are having 51 per cent of their income taxed away at just £50,000 of earnings, a sum which will not lead to the ‘rich' lifestyle one may initially expect when living in an expensive city (Substack, 13 December 2024, link).  

Roger Bootle from Policy Exchange said that ‘just because graduates on average earn more than non-graduates, this does not mean that if you turn the marginal non-graduates into a graduate, their earnings will rise'. Writing in The Telegraph, Roger Bootle said, ‘just because graduates on average earn more than non-graduates, this does not mean that if you turn the marginal non-graduate into a graduate, their earnings will rise' (The Telegraph, 11 August 2025, link).  

But high-quality alternatives to university are heavily oversubscribed, leaving young people without the choice they deserve to secure a prosperous future:  

High-quality apprenticeship places are heavily oversubscribed because young people want a high-quality alternative route to university. One example of this is construction firm, Seddon, which received 2,694 applicants for its 20 apprentice placements in its latest hiring round in May 2025 (The Construction Index, 13 May 2025, link).  

We would reintroduce caps on subject categories based on quality and future prospects of each degree, whilst re-investing this money into new apprenticeship and teaching opportunities: 

We would reintroduce controls on student numbers for each subject group, based on quality and graduate outcomes. Number controls would apply in every subject group, such as creative arts, languages or sports science, and would be progressively reduced in subject groups where we see the greatest losses for taxpayers and students. This would reduce the number of annual university places by approximately 100,000 and save over £3 billion in loan repayment losses that are currently written off each year as public spending.   

These caps would be introduced at the start of the parliament and progressively reduce the numbers of students on low-value courses over the term. This would allow universities the time to adapt.  

This money will be reinvested to double the apprenticeship budget. We would double the current apprenticeship budget, worth £3 billion a year, by the end of the Parliament. This extra funding would be in addition to apprenticeship levy funding. We would invest the remaining savings back into high-value targeted teaching grants into specialist subjects, including engineering and medicine, in the higher education sector. Labour have cut support for these high value courses. (WonkHE, 20 May 2025, link) 

There are currently 339,000 people of all ages starting an apprenticeship each year and over 736,000 people on an apprenticeship.  Among those aged 19-24 there are 96,000 starting an apprenticeship and 284,000 on an apprenticeship (DFE Education Statistics, 23/24 - link.) 

Labour have created an anti-business, anti-apprenticeship agenda that is failing to provide young people with the opportunity they deserve:  

Labour are diluting the quality of apprenticeships, taking away high-quality alternatives for young people who don't wish to go to university. Labour cut the minimum duration of an apprenticeship from 12 to eight months, cutting the time of learning for apprentices, and axed English and maths functional skills exist requirement for adult apprentices with immediate effect, diluting the quality of apprenticeships. They are also abolishing 90% of level 7 apprenticeships, which will ‘disproportionately impact' public services (FE Week, 11 February 2025, link; FE Week, 27 September 2024, link).  

There are nearly one million young people not in of education, employment or training, up by 27,000 on Labour's watch. There were 948,000 young people aged 16 to 24 who were not in education, employment or training in April to June 2025, up from 921,000 in April to June 2024 when the Conservatives left office, denying young people the opportunities they deserve (ONS, Young people not in education, employment of training, 21 August 2025, link).  

Matt Wrankmore, the head of Garage Network at FixMyCar, said Labour's actions ‘will not only add to their strain [as a business], but it will also sadly force them to rethink their investment' into apprenticeships. Wrankmore said, ‘The increase in apprentice minimum wage will not only add to their strain, but it will also sadly force them to rethink this investment, since the financial pressures make it harder to recruit and retain apprentices' (Raconteur, 13 February 2025, link).  

The Liberal Democrats have no plan for the higher education sector, leaving young people in limbo and without the opportunity they deserve:    

The Liberal Democrats pledged to abolish the apprenticeship levy, which encouraged employers to invest in high-quality apprenticeships by providing sustainable funding. The Liberal Democrats' 2024 manifesto pledged to replace the apprenticeship levy, which the Conservatives set up in 2017 and ‘put employers in the driving seat for developing new apprenticeship standards to meet the skills they need' (Liberal Democrats, Article, 18 December 2009, link; Hansard, 24 February 2025, Col.1, link). 

Reform are not on the side of business or young people and would burden both with increasing costs, denying them the environment they need to succeed: 

Reform would slam businesses with a retrospective 20 per cent increase in Employers' National Insurance on foreign workers, denying them the opportunity to provide apprenticeships. Reform UK's 2024 manifesto pledged to increase Employers' National Insurance to 20 per cent on foreign workers retrospectively, leaving businesses burdened with sudden, unaffordable bills that would force them to cut their training budgets, denying young people the apprenticeship opportunities they deserve (Reform UK, Manifesto 2024, 15 June 2024, link).