Member

These amendments address a problem of youth unemployment that has been growing for a while. There have been multiple policy interventions in apprenticeships to help young people into work but, astonishingly, participation in apprenticeship schemes, some provided with significant taxpayer support, has been falling. The number of young people starting in an apprenticeship in 2016 was around 500,000, but, after multiple policy initiatives, that number has fallen below 350,000 a couple of years ago. There seem to be lots of reasons for this, including a changing culture of employment, some complexity in the schemes and a tendency to use training for older people, but one way or another that means that young people are not getting help into the workforce.