Reform UK’s apprenticeship wage credit, a proposal that would see taxpayers cover 30% of the wages paid to young apprentices at small and medium-sized businesses, has been unveiled as the party’s first step towards what it calls a ‘skills revolution’. The policy was set out by Reform UK‘s education spokeswoman Suella Braverman, who said the credit would apply to apprentices aged 16 to 18.
The announcement was timed to coincide with GCSE results day, with Braverman urging school leavers ‘not to get ripped off by the great university scam’ and to consider learning a trade instead. She said the Reform UK apprenticeship wage credit would result in businesses saving an average of £4,000 a year per apprentice.
What the Reform UK apprenticeship wage credit would mean in practice
Alongside the wage subsidy, Braverman set out a £2,000 tax-free retention bonus for workers who stay with the business that trained them for at least two years after completing their apprenticeship, rewarding what she described as ‘loyalty’. Together, the two measures form the core of a package Reform says could cost between £1.48 billion and almost £2 billion over five years.
The party says it would fund the policy by banning foreign students from accessing taxpayer-funded loans and by cutting what it calls ‘Mickey Mouse degrees’. Asked to give examples, Braverman pointed to ‘gender studies’ and ‘golf course studies’. She said: ‘There’s not a necessity, there’s not a value in many of these degrees.’
The broader aim, according to Reform, is to reach 600,000 apprenticeship starts per year by the end of the next Parliament, likely to be 2034. The party has described Thursday’s announcement as the first in a series of proposals towards that target.
Speaking at a press conference, Braverman said: ‘We’re firing the starting gun on unleashing a technical and vocational renaissance of homegrown skills. Reform will not do this because it fills us with some jingoistic pride but because we will do what it takes to save Britain from the perpetual doom loop of decline, debt and despair that we’re currently in.’
When asked whether the policy would force some universities to close, Braverman said she did not envisage that outcome. She suggested instead that universities should ‘repurpose’ themselves into construction colleges and manufacturing colleges, arguing there is an ‘excessive number of graduates with qualifications that don’t match the skills needed for our country.’
Pushback from the golf greenkeepers and the political parties
Braverman’s repeated targeting of golf-related degrees has drawn a response from the British and International Golf Greenkeepers Association. Chief executive Jim Croxton said the remarks were ‘negligent and potentially damaging’, adding: ‘Golf course management is a growing industry with currently more vacancies than qualified applicants. Anyone successfully studying for a degree in this field is effectively guaranteed employment in a vibrant industry.’
The government’s position is that it is already acting on the skills agenda. A Labour Party spokesperson said all young people ‘deserve a clear route to a good career’ whether through ‘a properly funded apprenticeship, high-quality technical education or university’. The spokesperson pointed to what the Labour Party described as 500,000 new jobs, apprenticeships and training opportunities, including a guaranteed job for 18 to 24-year-olds who have been out of work for 18 months.
The context around apprenticeships has been taking shape across government too. Prime Minister Andy Burnham has said he wants teenagers to have technical routes into careers that could rival a traditional university degree. The government has also been examining how to encourage more young people into work, including offering some parents on benefits up to £4,500 a year to help their children start apprenticeships. Former minister Alan Milburn has been tasked with investigating why so many young people are not in employment, education or training, a group known by the acronym Neets.
The Conservatives also staked out ground on the issue. Shadow education secretary Laura Trott said on Wednesday that there is demand for apprenticeships but argued the Labour government ‘aren’t doing enough to boost supply’. She said a Conservative policy she called the ‘New Deal for Young People’ would cut ‘dead end degrees that don’t lead to jobs’ and invest in apprenticeships instead.
With all three main parties now competing on apprenticeships and skills, the political pressure to act is growing: Reform’s next set of proposals in this series is expected to keep the issue at the top of the education debate.
