Conservative chief Kemi Badenoch has pledged to reform schooling funding by reducing college entrants by 100,000
Conservative Chief made announcement on her get together’s apprenticeship and scholar loans coverage (Picture: Alishia Abodunde/Getty Pictures)
Kemi Badenoch has vowed to double the variety of apprenticeships and cut back the variety of college entrants by 100,000 as a part of a sweeping overhaul of schooling funding.
The Conservative chief accomplished an engineering apprenticeship previous to attending college, revealing she loved the expertise a lot that she was reluctant to maneuver on.
She raised the matter with apprentices throughout a go to on Monday (February 23) to the Virgin Media O2 headquarters in Paddington, west London.
Mrs Badenoch outlined her get together’s plans to reform schooling funding by scrapping sure college programs and redirecting the financial savings in the direction of apprenticeships.
The Conservatives beforehand acknowledged that lowering college entrants by 100,000 would save the Authorities £3.6 billion, with these funds used to offer the identical variety of extra apprenticeships for 18 to 21-year-olds, as a part of a “new deal for younger individuals”, in response to the Sunday Occasions.
Chatting with apprentices on Monday, Mrs Badenoch stated: “I bear in mind after I completed my apprenticeship, I used to be having a lot enjoyable I did not need to depart.”
She burdened the significance of elevating the standing of apprenticeships, including that such schemes “are literally a extremely incredible strategy to be taught and get within the office”.
Mrs Badenoch stated: “If we need to double the variety of apprenticeships, we have to encourage individuals to take them on. That is not simply college students but in addition dad and mom. Many dad and mom are those who say ‘no do not do an apprenticeship’, so we’re working exhausting to alter their mindset.”
She acknowledged that “encouraging companies to tackle younger individuals” was very important and that “taking cash out of the college sector and placing it into apprenticeships” was essential to boosting the variety of out there schemes.
“So we’re not spending extra public cash, we’re merely shifting the way in which schooling cash is being prioritised,” she stated.
Kemi Badenoch spoke with apprentices throughout a go to to Virgin Media O2 headquarters (Picture: Alishia Abodunde/Getty Pictures)
Following the dialogue, Mrs Badenoch informed the Press Affiliation: “We all know that many younger persons are going to college when truly they need to be happening apprenticeships.
“I had an apprenticeship myself, so I do know the worth of it, and I am additionally apprehensive that younger persons are getting lots of debt from going to college and never essentially getting a greater job than in the event that they’d taken an apprenticeship.
“So I am spreading the phrase and letting individuals find out about our new deal for younger individuals.”
The latest Division for Training figures present 142,780 individuals commenced an apprenticeship for the 2025/26 tutorial yr as of October, representing a 7.7% rise from the 132,560 recorded the earlier yr.
The Conservative chief has additional pledged to cut back the rate of interest charged on sure scholar loans amid rising concern over rising prices.
Actually good to debate @MartinSLewis this morning. We each need to see the coed mortgage burden introduced down, whereas Labour hike it up.
I’m sticking up for younger individuals within the scholar mortgage lure, as a result of no-one else in politics is. pic.twitter.com/aJwCdnWlqA
— Kemi Badenoch (@KemiBadenoch) February 23, 2026
Within the wake of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s November finances, the earnings threshold at which repayments start beneath the present system can be frozen at £29,385 for 3 years, leading to many graduates going through increased repayments.
Curiosity on Plan 2 loans is utilized on the RPI inflation fee plus as much as 3%, relying on a graduate’s wage. Mrs Badenoch has unveiled proposals to restrict this to RPI alone, arguing that this may allow extra graduates to clear their debt.
“We need to change what’s going on with Plan 2, the place lots of younger persons are paying an increasing number of, they usually’re not clearing any of their scholar debt; it is truly rising,” she stated on Monday.
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“And that is getting worse due to the modifications that Rachel Reeves made within the finances, freezing the thresholds, that means more cash goes to be spent successfully on a tax to pay for advantages. That is not proper.
“So we would like scholar mortgage funds to be inflation solely, not inflation plus 3% and that is one thing that is truly going to make life lots simpler for a lot of younger people who find themselves popping out with large money owed, they cannot purchase a home, they are not beginning households, they usually really feel just like the world is in opposition to them.”
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