Conservatives pledge to support vocations

The Conservative party has pledged to create a scheme which will introduce bursaries to move students from apprenticeships into higher education.

The policy will create up to 1,200 university places for vocational subjects like science and engineering, and will pay every student's tuition fees, according to plans unveiled at the Conservative party conference in Birmingham.

David Willetts, the shadow universities secretary, said: "Many young people find themselves and discover their self-confidence when they master a skill.

"But they should be able to go on studying afterwards when they might gain even more. If you start as an apprentice phone engineer and show a real aptitude for the academic side too, surely you should have the chance to go on and study electrical engineering at university?

"At the heart of our approach is the revival of apprenticeships. We know what real apprenticeships are – it is when a skilled worker passes on their knowledge to the next generation with some academic study as well. But the number of these real apprenticeships is actually down since 1997. Instead youth training schemes have been renamed as apprenticeships. These days you can be called an apprentice without setting foot on the shop floor."

However, the Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians (UCATT), was critical of the Conservatives' approach.

UCATT General Secretary Alan Ritchie said: "Successive Conservative governments nearly destroyed the apprenticeship system during the 1980's and 1990's.

"They had total disdain in investing in skills for the future. To now claim that apprenticeships are the way forward is the grossest of hypocrisy and should be taken with a large spoonful of salt."

The Conservatives also backed further funds for future years, with Mr Willett listing funding for “100,000 more apprenticeship places” as well as funds for small business apprenticeships and funding for over-19s as “practical policy commitments.”

Mr Willett also criticised Labour’s Train to Gain training programme, which has come under fire recently due to claims that 60 per cent of candidates are not completing the course despite gaining full funding.

He said: “We’re going to give lifelong learning a new lease of life. That means £100 million of wasted Train to Gain spending redirected to adult learning [which] has economic, as well as social value. The more that people reskill and upskill, the more the whole country benefits.”

In a speech in July, David Cameron said the Conservatives would create 100,000 more places for apprentices.

The Labour government has defended Train to Gain, saying that in the past ten years the number of apprenticeships in Britain have risen by over 150,000.