Former minister calls for incentives for schools to promote apprenticeships

Robert Halfon, who served as apprenticeships minister between July 2016 and June 2017, and now serves as chair of the education select committee, said there is an urgent need to transform how apprenticeships are viewed.

"Too often [an apprenticeship] is seen as something less, and the bias is towards traditional academic education in schools," said Halfon, who was taking a part in a panel debate on young people and future jobs at a fringe meeting at the annual Conservative Party conference in Manchester.

"We have to do something big in schools - they have to focus more on skills and apprentices in terms of career options, not just university and higher education.

"We can do that either by making it a serious measurement of how the school is doing or looking at the money that goes to schools and incentivising the school so that more young people are encouraged to do an apprenticeship.

"We have to transform the prestige and we'll only do that if children at schools know that apprenticeships are a serious option that are as good, if not better, than going to university." 

Halfon said he wants every single young person from the age of 16 to be able to access a high-quality technical apprenticeship if they so wish - from Level 2 right up to degree level.

"I would love more degree-level apprenticeships," he said.

"I think we should re-gear our whole university system to at least try to reach a target of at least 50 per cent of people being students doing degree apprenticeships."