Labour

The Prime Minister, Sir Kier Starmer, has scrapped the 50 per cent target for young people going to university, replacing it with two-third getting higher-level skills through university, further education or a “gold standard” apprenticeship by the age of 25.

This includes a target of 10 per cent of young people pursuing higher technical education or apprenticeships by 2040 – which would be double current figures.

The government also announced a ‘Youth Guarantee’  of training, work support or an apprenticeship for every young person, along with the reintroduction of maintenance grants for low-earning households.

To support high-growth sector, 14 new technical excellence colleges will be built, in addition to the 25 previously announced technical excellence colleges for construction and defence.

An investment of £800 million will be made into education for 16-19-year-olds (from 2026/2027), while further education and higher education will be brought together to support a joined up post-18 education system to deliver higher level training (Level 4 and 5), including modular courses tailored to priority skills.

More details will follow in the Post-16 Education and Skills White Paper and the Budget on November 26.

Conservatives

The opposition had made a commitment to double the apprenticeship budget to £6 billion, funded through the removal of funding for ‘poor value’ degrees.

They have also said apprenticeships for 18-21-year-olds would be incentivised.

Liberal Democrats

Through their ‘Opportunity For All’ programme, the Lib Dems laid out their key priorities for skills.

This includes setting the institutional framework by reforming Skills England to increase independence and accountability to parliament, and requiring regions to product Workforce Development plans aligned with industrial strategies and devolve skills funding to Mayoral Combined Authorities within a national framework of performance and quality assurance.

They also plan to boost funding for FE by introducing a £10,000 Lifelong Training grant for every adult with clear guidance to supports its use for re-skilling and career transitions, and allow FE colleges to reclaim VAT (on par with sixth form colleges).

They would further incentivise and improve training by:

• transforming the Apprenticeship Levy into a Skills and Training Account model, to encourage more uptake through accessibility improvements for small and medium-sized employers
• scrap the apprenticeship minimum wage and replacing the national minimum wage
• establishing Skills Cooperatives for SMEs to pool training resources and rotate apprentices
• enabling funding for micro-credentials and modular learning
• guaranteeing AI training for all public sector workers
• ensuring careers guidance providers are trained to support job seekers to communicate transferable skills.

Finally, they would also strengthen the uptake of vocational qualifications by:

• supporting BTECs and reforming T Levels into modular formats with flexible industry placements
• bringing in more technical education into mainstream schools.
• making careers guidance a statutory part of the curriculum from primary school onwards
• strengthening the National Careers Service offer

Greens

The Greens’ new leader, Zack Polanski, addressed their conference for the first time. Skills policy was not at the forefront of his speech – instead, he spoke mainly about the need to turn the country round by investing in people and communities, and how people could be empowered through education and training.

Reform

Skills policy is currently being drawn up but early thinking includes: bursaries to encourage people to train to fill critical skill gaps, the introduction of Regional Technical Colleges for plumbing, electrical trades and industrial automation, and a pledge to limit undergraduate places to “well below” current levels, enforce minimum entry requirements and mandate all universities to offer two-year undergraduate courses.

Scottish National Party

Party leader John Swinney, spoke about job creation in renewables-based manufacturing and offshore wind hubs, linking both with skills development. He also spoke to his ministers about the importance of investment, including in Scottish people. Swinney also reconfirmed his party’s commitment to free university education and praised Scotland’s universities as “some of the world’s best”.

Plaid Cymru

Party leader Rhun ap Iorwerth pledged more funding to recruit teachers and reconfirmed earlier announced plans for a National Skills Audit as part of its ‘Making Wales Work’ economic strategy. This would align education and training opportunities to the needs of employers and industries, supporting school leavers with their careers choices, and addressing young people not in employment, education or training (NEETs).