Reform UK has unveiled a £1.5 billion pledge aimed at revitalizing apprenticeships and steering young Britons away from what the party terms 'Mickey Mouse degrees.' The proposal includes a 30% 'apprenticeship wage credit' for small and medium-sized businesses hiring apprentices, a move designed to save employers up to £4,500 per apprentice.
Suella Braverman, Reform's Education and Skills spokesman, announced the pledge, stating that Britain is in need of apprentices amidst a crisis where one million young people are not in employment, education, or training. "We realise that to completely revamp the mindset of this country into the skills revolution that we need, the government will lead from the front," Braverman said. "That is why we will reimburse each business 30% of the wages when they take on a young apprentice. In doing so, a Reform government is investing 30% into each young person's success."
Braverman also indicated that a Nigel Farage-led government would implement an apprenticeship retention bonus. Workers who remain with the company that trained them for two years would receive a £2,000 reward from the government.
The party estimates the total cost of these policies at approximately £1.5 billion. Funding would partly come from 'significant savings' achieved by prohibiting foreign students from accessing taxpayer-funded loans. Deputy leader Richard Tice suggested this policy could lead to disputes with Brussels over trade deals, but expressed willingness to prioritize UK interests.
Reform UK specifically targeted taxpayer-funded degrees from what they described as 'third-rate universities,' criticizing fields such as gender studies and golf course studies for having questionable graduate outcomes and leaving students with significant debt. Braverman stated, "There's not a necessity, there's not a value in many of these degrees… You've got to ask yourself what are your graduate outcomes looking like?"
Braverman argued that promoting apprenticeships in trades like construction and painting would better equip young people for a future labor market potentially disrupted by artificial intelligence. "AI is not going to be able to paint a room!" she exclaimed, emphasizing the need for practical skills.
Reform aims to increase apprenticeship starts to 600,000 per year by the end of the next parliamentary term. The Labour party has countered, stating their focus on apprenticeships has already resulted in 500,000 new opportunities, including guaranteed jobs for 18-to-24-year-olds unemployed for at least 18 months.
