Kemi Badenoch plans to double apprentice numbers and cut university entrants
The Conservative leader also wants to reduce the amount of interest paid on some student loans.
Kemi Badenoch has pledged to double the number of apprenticeships and cut university entrants by 100,000 as part of reforms to education funding.
The Conservative leader did an engineering apprenticeship before going to university, and said she was having so much fun she did not want to leave.
She discussed the issue with apprentices during a visit on Monday to the Virgin Media O2 headquarters in Paddington, west London.
Mrs Badenoch said her party would reform education funding by cutting some university courses and transferring the money saved to apprenticeships.
The Conservatives previously said cutting the number of university entrants by 100,000 would save the Government £3.6 billion and fund the same number of extra apprenticeships for 18 to 21-year-olds, as part of a “new deal for young people”, according to the Sunday Times.
On Monday, Mrs Badenoch told the apprentices: “I remember when I finished my apprenticeship, I was having so much fun I didn’t want to leave.”
She discussed the need to “elevate” the prestige of apprenticeships, with Mrs Badenoch adding apprentice schemes “are actually a really fantastic way to learn and get in the workplace”.
Mrs Badenoch said: “If we want to double the number of apprenticeships, we need to encourage people to take them on. That’s not just students but also parents. Many parents are the ones who say ‘no don’t do an apprenticeship’, so we’re working hard to change their mindset.”
She said “encouraging businesses to take on young people” was important and “taking money out of the university sector and putting it into apprenticeships” was key to increasing the number of available schemes.
“So we’re not spending additional public money, we’re simply shifting the way education money is being prioritised,” she said.
After the discussion, Mrs Badenoch told the Press Association: “We know that many young people are going to university when actually they should be going on apprenticeships.
“I had an apprenticeship myself, so I know the value of it, and I’m also worried that young people are getting a lot of debt from going to university and not necessarily getting a better job than if they’d taken an apprenticeship.
“So I’m spreading the word and letting people know about our new deal for young people.”
The latest Department for Education statistics available show 142,780 people started an apprenticeship for the 2025/26 academic year as of October, up 7.7% from 132,560 reported the previous year.
The Conservative leader has also promised to cut the amount of interest paid on some student loans amid widespread concerns over costs.
Following Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s November budget, the salary threshold at which repayments kick in under the system will be frozen at £29,385 for three years, leading to many having to pay more.
Interest on Plan 2 loans is charged at the rate of RPI inflation plus up to 3%, depending on how much a graduate earns.
Mrs Badenoch has announced plans to restrict this to RPI only, saying this would help higher numbers of graduates pay off their debt.
“We want to change what is going on with Plan 2, where a lot of young people are paying more and more and they’re not clearing any of their student debt, it’s actually increasing,” she said on Monday.
“And this is getting worse because of the changes that Rachel Reeves made in the budget, freezing the thresholds, meaning more money is going to be spent effectively on a tax to pay for benefits. That’s not right.
“So we want student loan payments to be inflation only, not inflation plus 3% and that’s something that’s actually going to make life a lot easier for many young people who are coming out with huge debts, they can’t buy a house, they’re not starting families, and they feel like the world is against them.”
