Milburn review to recommend national pre-apprenticeship route for young people

Left · 2Alan Milburn, the former Labour cabinet minister leading a review of youth worklessness, will urge the government to create a national "pre-apprenticeship route" to bridge the gap between leaving school and starting work. 1 2 Left · 2According to both reports, the route would be delivered mainly through colleges and combine English and maths, technical training and work experience with an employer. 2 1 Left · 2The Mirror, citing its understanding of the final report, says it would typically be open to 16-18-year-olds who lack qualifications, confidence and workplace experience, and be taken instead of routes such as A Levels, BTECs and V Levels. The Guardian says it is aimed at young people lacking the qualifications, confidence, experience or routines to secure and sustain a full apprenticeship, and describes it as a scheme for England. 1 2

Left · 2Milburn said young people had long been told to get an apprenticeship, but that many face a gap before they are ready for one, and that employers want to know a recruit will "turn up, learn the job and stick at it". 1 2 Left · 2The proposal draws on a one-year pre-vocational course in Austria, which has a lower Neet rate than the UK; the Guardian adds that the Netherlands and Austria place much greater emphasis on vocational routes. 1 2 Left · 2The Mirror says there were an estimated 981,000 Neets aged 18-24 in April to June, 30,000 more than a year earlier. The Guardian says as few as one in five apprenticeship starts go to a 16- to 18-year-old, the number of under-19s starting apprenticeships has almost halved in a decade, and only 2% of apprenticeship starters were previously Neet. 1 2

Left · 2The final report follows an interim report in May that warned of a lost generation. The Mirror says it is expected after the Budget; the Guardian reports that Andy Burnham's government is delaying the full recommendations until at least November, amid concern in Downing Street that they could sit uneasily alongside the 28 October budget, with the review previously due to launch next week. 1 2 Left · 1Sources close to the review confirmed the delay but downplayed its significance, saying Downing Street was working out how to present it alongside other big reviews, including the Timms review into disability benefits, the budget and the prime minister's 10-year plan. 2 Left · 1The Guardian reports that Milburn has signalled a shake-up of the benefits system as a central plank of the report, and that ministers are exploring scrapping a disability benefit for under-25s in favour of a multibillion-pound package of support into work, while being cautious after the earlier welfare rebellion that forced a U-turn by Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves. 2

Left · 2Burnham named reducing the number of Neets a personal priority after entering Downing Street in July. The Mirror says Chancellor John Healey announced an extra £100m fund at Labour conference as a "down-payment" on Milburn's review, while the Guardian says £100m is backing an expansion of local apprenticeship services run by regional mayors over two years. 1 2