The Conservative Party has announced a plan to raise the number
of people in ‘high-skilled apprenticeships' by 100,000 per year
by the end of the next parliament. An additional 100,000
apprentices would increase participation by 13% and return
numbers back to their 2016 peak. Delivering such a large increase
while maintaining quality will be challenging. The government
would need to persuade employers to offer new apprenticeships. At
present large employers return £550 million of their
apprenticeship levy to the Treasury each year. That is
effectively free money that they choose to give away rather than
spend on apprenticeships.
The additional apprenticeships are being offered as an
alternative to ‘rip-off university degrees'. As it stands the
policy appears to imply that courses attended by about one in
eight undergraduates would be scrapped.
Expanding the number of apprenticeships will require an increase
in public spending – it could cost up to an additional £900
million each year. The Conservative Party proposes to finance
additional public expenditure through savings from scrapping
existing degree courses.
Of course, those who would otherwise have signed up to those
courses might instead sign up for degrees not identified as “rip
offs”. To the extent that they do, the savings from getting rid
of those courses would not transpire. It seems likely that a high
fraction of those currently choosing one degree course would sign
up for another degree course rather than go for an
apprenticeship.
Imran Tahir, Research Economist:
“Apprenticeship participation more than doubled between 2010 and
2016 but has since fallen by around 16%. Successfully delivering
another 100,000 apprenticeships would fully reverse the decline
in apprenticeship participation, at a cost of around £900 million
each year. The Conservative Party proposes to fund the expansion
through ending degree courses taken by around one in eight
undergraduates. Yet it is unclear whether the savings from
cutting these courses would be sufficient. This funding
“mechanism” also looks odd when around £550 million a year - or
15% - of the dedicated apprenticeship levy on larger employers is
currently returned to the Treasury to finance general spending,
rather than apprenticeships or training.”
Read the briefing
here.
