Apprenticeships and Skills at the Party Conferences: Progress or déjà vu?

Paul Thompson – our Director of People & Learning – shares his thoughts on the announcements made during this week’s party conferences — what they mean for young people facing barriers, for the employers we work alongside, and for organisations like Coach Core that are committed to tackling inequality and creating opportunities through apprenticeships.

Over the last week, the political spotlight has been firmly on youth employment, skills, and apprenticeships. At Coach Core, our work is all about enabling young people who face barriers, discrimination, and a lack of opportunities to find meaningful careers through sport and physical activity. Each time government engages with our area of expertise, we consider what the announcements mean for young people, employers, and creating fairer access to opportunities.

Here are some of the key announcements from the conferences (and just before):

• Two-thirds skills target: By 25, two-thirds of young people should achieve higher-level skills (Level 4 and above), through university, Further Education (FE) or apprenticeships
• Extra £800m for FE: A significant funding boost for 16–19 education next year
• 14 new Technical Excellence Colleges: Aimed at driving quality and access
• Apprenticeships “on a par” with university: Framing parity as a central policy goal
• Youth Guarantee: Every young person to have access to education, training or work, with a new paid placement scheme for young people on Universal Credit for 18+ months
• Skills England move department: From Department for Education (DfE) to Department for Work & Pensions (DWP), signalling stronger links between skills policy and employment outcomes

The Prime Minister spoke of rejecting the old university-first paradigm and calling for a revaluation of education routes. That shift is welcome. But we should remember we have heard this before. David Cameron promised the same parity a decade ago, and despite much progress, apprenticeships remain undervalued, under-funded and, too often, out of reach for the very young people who need them most.

It’s also worth noting that, just ahead of conference, Skills England was moved from the Department for Education to the Department for Work and Pensions. For those outside the sector this may have flown under the radar, but it matters: it signals a clear intent to join up skills policy with employment outcomes, which in principle is a positive step.

The focus on higher-level skills plays well with industrial strategy and the country’s wider economic renewal. But it risks missing the reality that entry-level opportunities are in steep decline. Apprenticeship starts at Levels 2 and 3, particularly for under-19s, have dropped sharply in recent years. These programmes are not just numbers on a chart: they are the crucial first step for young people who have left school disengaged, are struggling to get a job, or have faced significant barriers in their lives. If we weaken these first rungs of the ladder, we exclude the very people a skills mission should be trying hardest to reach.

There are also concerns about the reach of the new paid placement scheme. Tying access to Universal Credit after 18 months means it could touch fewer than 5% of the almost one million young people currently classed as NEET. Many are not in the benefits system at all, and by the time 18 months has passed, disengagement may already be deep-rooted. A guarantee should be about opening doors early, not waiting until it is almost too late.

What came through strongly in both the Prime Minister’s speech and the skills fringe events was the central role of employers. The message was clear: without business, none of this can succeed. Larger firms can and do invest in apprenticeships, but most opportunities for young people exist with SMEs, and they will only play their part if the system is simpler, less bureaucratic, and backed by the right incentives. There was broad agreement that the apprenticeship levy has failed in its current form, with calls for greater flexibility, local tailoring and real employer engagement. The TUC also highlighted chronic underinvestment in training, with too many young people still missing out on opportunities simply because of where they live or who they work for.

The framing of national renewal as “rewiring the country” is powerful. But renewal cannot only mean equipping people for manufacturing, construction or digital. It must also include the sectors that hold communities together and improve lives every day: health, wellbeing, sport and physical activity. Skills policy linked to industrial strategy is important, but skills policy linked to social strategy is equally vital if we are to tackle inequality and unlock the potential of every young person.

Speaking at the Labour Conference, the Prime Minister said he said he was scrapping the party’s old ambition to “get 50% of kids to uni” as it was no longer “right for our times”. Replacing the 50% university target with a skills target is progress. Investing in FE is overdue. And putting apprenticeships at the heart of the national mission is the right ambition. But warm words and new targets will not be enough. From our perspective at Coach Core, if this government is serious about ending long-term youth unemployment, it must:

• Tackle the decline in entry-level apprenticeships at Level 2 and 3
• Ensure guarantees and placements reach the full NEET population, not just UC claimants
• Provide SMEs with the support they need to offer opportunities at scale
• Build consistency and stability so that colleges, training providers and employers can plan with confidence

We have been here before. This time, delivery will be the real test. At Coach Core, we will continue to champion apprenticeships that are accessible, inclusive and impactful — making sure young people who face barriers have the opportunities they deserve, and that employers can unlock the energy and talent apprentices bring.

Over the past year there’s been a wave of new research and reports shining a light on the power of apprenticeships. From government insights like the DfE’s Post-16 Pathways research, to the Youth Futures Foundation’s work on ethnic disparities, and independent studies from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, Sutton Trust and others, the evidence is stacking up.

We’ve also contributed to this picture with our own Coach Core Employer Experience research, highlighting the unique challenges and opportunities for small and community-based employers.

There’s a lot to unpack here — so keep your eyes peeled for part two next week, where we’ll dig deeper into what all of this means for young people, employers and the wider skills system, and set out our specific calls to government.