Reform UK wants taxpayers to help pay apprentices’ wages

Reform wants to shake up how young people enter the workforce

Under the scheme, small and medium-sized businesses would receive a 30% rebate on the wages of apprentices aged between 16 and 18, with the money coming from taxpayers.

Reform UK education spokeswoman Suella Braverman said the policy would be introduced through an “apprenticeship wage credit” if the party entered government, according to BBC News.

The package would also include a £2,000 bonus for apprentices who stay in their roles, with Reform estimating that the measures would cost between £1.48bn and almost £2bn over five years.

Braverman used GCSE results day to encourage young people to consider apprenticeships rather than automatically going down the university route, warning them not to “get ripped off by the great university scam” and arguing that learning a trade could be a better option for some.

Reform says it would pay for the policy by ending taxpayer-funded student loans for foreign students and cutting courses it dismisses as “Mickey Mouse degrees”.

How the Reform UK pitch lands

"We're firing the starting gun on unleashing a technical and vocational renaissance of homegrown skills."

Suella Braverman

Braverman made the announcement alongside Reform UK deputy leader Richard Tice, arguing that the UK has ended up with too many graduates whose qualifications do not necessarily line up with the skills employers actually need, the Mirror reports.

The press conference also attracted noticeably fewer journalists than Reform has become accustomed to, something that comes as Labour continues to hold a sizeable polling advantage over the party. Recent polling report

Reform is also entering territory Labour is already trying to make its own. Andy Burnham has been pushing for technical and vocational routes that can compete with university, while his plans include offering some parents receiving benefits up to £4,500 a year to encourage their children to take up apprenticeships.

The apprenticeship proposal is only the first part of a wider set of policies Reform plans to announce, with the party setting itself a target of 600,000 apprenticeship starts every year by the end of the next Parliament, which would likely mean reaching that figure by around 2034.