Milburn Review: Interim Report
Debate between Suella Braverman and Andrew Western(1 week, 4 days ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Urgent Questions are proposed each morning by backbench MPs, and up to two may be selected each day by the Speaker. Chosen Urgent Questions are announced 30 minutes before Parliament sits each day.
Each Urgent Question requires a Government Minister to give a response on the debate topic.
This information is provided by Parallel Parliament and does not comprise part of the offical record
Andrew Western
I do agree. I hope that my hon. Friend heard what I said in response to my hon. Friend the Member for Hackney South and Shoreditch (Dame Meg Hillier) earlier about the need to work holistically, across Government and outside Government, with partners in the charitable sector, employment support companies and so on, to ensure that a range of interventions are available so that young people do not—exactly as she outlines—see a life not in education, employment or training as their future. That is something we must stop.
Suella Braverman (Fareham and Waterlooville) (Reform)
Some 70% of graduates say that university just was not worth it—and is it any wonder, when we have seen an increase in low-quality degrees, people coming out with crippling debt, and lower job prospects for graduates? I welcome many elements in the Milburn review, but if we are to fix this crisis of youth unemployment, we need not tweaks, but an overhaul of vocational training and a correction to the Blairite obsession with university, so that fewer young people are scammed by the great university con.
Andrew Western
I would not put it quite in the terms used by the right hon. Lady, but jingoistic rhetoric is a feature of her new place in this House. As I said in response to my hon. Friend the Member for Oldham West, Chadderton and Royton (Jim McMahon), this Government recognise that it should no longer be a target of any Government to send 50% of young people to university. That is why we have revised the target, so that this Government’s aspiration is for 66% of young people to be either in higher education or undertaking an apprenticeship.