Skills, Vocational Training, and Further and Higher Education

Baroness Alexander of Cleveden Excerpts

Thursday 3rd September 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Alexander of Cleveden (Lab)]

My Lords, I also thank my noble friend Lady Morgan.

When I arrived in your Lordships’ House 18 months ago, I had just become the chair of the body that certifies every electrician—there are 170,000 of them across the country. I immediately encountered deep concern among employers about the fate of apprenticeships—the bureaucracy, the cost of training and the support needs of the young apprentices. This malaise deeply pained employers who had invariably come up the apprenticeship route themselves.

Many noble Lords have mentioned what has happened in the last 18 months. The Milburn report published in May has been seminal. As others have said, it has been uncompromising about the moral scandal of a million NEETs, clear that young people desperately want to work and candid about the multidimensional roots of this crisis. As so often in politics, timing matters. There is not a Member among us who did not have conversations during the Recess about the future of the jobs market. Yet the public fear that politicians, in the parlance of today, “craft the narrative” or “tell the story” but too rarely stick around to solve the problem.

So in my remaining time, I will talk about the momentum since the Milburn report—not on the supply side, which has dominated our discussions today about what is happening in the education system, but in stimulating employer demand. In June, it was £3,000 for employers taking on an eligible young person. In July, 22,000 defence apprenticeships were announced. In August, it was £10 billion for new affordable housing, fuelling new construction contracts. This month saw the first of 22,000 extra college places including free apprenticeship training for eligible under-25s. Next month, £2,000 will be paid to small employers for each new under-25 apprenticeship. November will see the nationwide rollout of the Government-backed job guarantee placement scheme for long-term unemployed young people. Altogether, all this ramps up and translates into half a million opportunities to earn or learn over the next three years. It is not the full answer, but it is getting closer to the scale of the challenge.

But success will not just come from investment, but from effectiveness. We need to strip back misplaced red tape and substitute it with a single-minded focus on skills. I am delighted that the Government are now scrapping the laundry list of social value demands for contractors bidding for public works. The complexity was trading out to common sense. From January, job creation and skills development will be the only social value requirements on businesses competing for public contracts. The Milburn report highlighted that the Netherlands has changed the trajectory and outcomes for young people. Giving a generation back their future is a battle to be won in our time. It will be done family by family, firm by firm and postcode by postcode.