Election 2015 Party Policy Guide: Post-16 learning

Conservatives

Labour

Liberal Democrats

Commentary
All three parties' manifestos focus heavily on expanding non-academic routes into learning, training and employment. Only Labour is promising to do anything about the cost of going to university, cutting tuition fees by one third.

The shift in emphasis highlights the need for the future government to create a viable alternative to higher education for the 50 per cent of school leavers that do not currently go to university and whose job destinations have been most affected by the recruitment of overseas workers.

Labour is promising to focus apprenticeship creation more towards those just entering the labour market, with every school leaver "guaranteed" an apprenticeship placement. This could help address concerns that too many apprentices are older workers.

It also wants to link apprenticeship creation to employment practices, so that any business that brings in workers from outside the EU will have to employ apprentices.
All the parties also include plans to dovetail vocational training increasingly with academic qualifications, so that those who learn on the job also achieve a high-level qualification at the end of the apprenticeship.