50,000 more apprenticeships? Brilliant. Now let’s make sure they reach the people who need them most.
This piece was written by Claire-Emily Martin, Senior Policy Associate at ReGenerate.
Keir Starmer’s recent announcement that the government will deliver 50,000 more apprenticeships over the next three years is welcome news.
But reminding us that success has long been measured by whether or not someone goes to university, only strengthens the long-held binary view that pits apprenticeships against historically more ‘traditional’ routes into the world of work.
Our priority shouldn’t merely lie in undoing this hierarchy. To move the dial on our biggest, most pressing social challenges – rising youth NEET rates, economic inactivity and unemployment – we need to create better routes into apprenticeships. This should include a targeted, deliberate effort to provide those routes to individuals who have systematically been locked out of opportunities: care-experienced people, ex-offenders, neurodivergent people, people with mental health conditions, and many others.
This isn’t just about businesses doing good. Taking on these apprentices is also good business. It helps to drive better retention and resilience, stronger innovation and community cohesion, improved outcomes for individuals, and reduced pressure on the public purse.
Growing momentum for the apprenticeships-for-good agenda
Beyond the headline announcement, the past couple months have seen exciting activity. I had the pleasure of serving as a national judge for the National Apprenticeship and Skills Awards 2025, and fed into the design of the EDI awards category. The judging process and ceremony revealed countless brilliant employer-led initiatives to widen apprenticeship access, alongside strong ministerial backing for this agenda from Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson, Work and Pensions Secretary Pat McFadden, and Skills Minister Baroness Jacqui Smith.
During National Care Leavers’ Month, the BBC hosted an event celebrating the importance of supporting care-experienced apprentices. I was delighted to speak on an Employer and Policy Expert Panel alongside brilliant panellists. What stayed with me most was the excellent first-hand insights from care-experienced young people, which underscored the pivotal need for a system designed with their voices at its core. November also saw the launch of a new Top Tips guide for employers powered by Amazing Apprenticeships, Moving on Up and the BBC, and an innovative Apprenticeship Buddy AI tool, both designed to support care-experienced young people and employers in navigating the apprenticeship landscape.
Three things to get right to ensure 50,000 opportunities go to those who need it most
Drawing on a set of brilliant developments and conversations over these past couple of months, there are three key things that we need to get right to ensure the 50,000 new apprenticeships are a success.
Understand the barriers holding employers back
Our research revealed that while there is huge employer appetite to support hidden talent onto apprenticeships, there are significant barriers holding employers back:
Gaps in work readiness. For individuals who have faced challenging circumstances or disrupted education, starting an apprenticeship can represent too much of a jump.
The upfront costs of wraparound support. Putting in place the right support for individuals to transition into employment is what makes the difference. But this comes at a cost, which employers, particularly in the current financial climate, can struggle to cover.
Low awareness of existing support. Six in ten employers aren’t aware of the additional payments available when hosting certain apprentices. Even where there is awareness, they lack clear guidance on how to spend funds effectively.
Managers need support too. Line managers can make or break an apprenticeship experience. We hear repeatedly how they need more expertise and tools to support certain groups of apprentices. Mentoring should be built in not just for apprentices, but for their managers too.
Lay the right foundations for change
There have been positive apprenticeship policy reforms over the past year, including several changes that we called for in our 2025 report. However, to drive long-lasting social impact, we need the right conditions and policies that enable employers to unlock greater access – not simply increase the number of apprenticeship starts. A few targeted shifts could make a big difference:
Make foundation apprenticeships a true stepping stone. That means ensuring the employability skills component of these new programmes really serves the needs of the groups they are targeting.
Expand foundation apprenticeships to more sectors beyond priority growth sectors. We’ve heard from employers in areas like hospitality that this would be hugely valuable.
Expand the eligible age range for foundation apprenticeships, potentially up to 35. Many of the barriers that younger individuals face when accessing employment remain with them well beyond their early to mid-twenties.
Identify and remove practical blockers to entering work. Transport costs and the ‘cliff edge’ of losing benefits when taking up short work experiences can be a huge deterrent to taking up apprenticeships, paradoxically disincentivising the kind of work readiness training people need to enter long-term work.
Encourage employers to do more
The good news is: lots of effective practice already exists, and it doesn’t require employers to start with huge numbers. We have witnessed two approaches that have worked particularly well, both prizing the concept of ‘collaboration over competition’:
Build up work readiness prior to apprenticeships. The most successful models are collaborative: Severn Trent recently launched an initiative bringing businesses across the Midlands together to offer two weeks of enhanced work experience for care leavers. It started small and has now scaled to a group of over 10 businesses offering around 40 placements, and continues to grow.
Use influence as well as headcount. Employers can be powerful ambassadors, communicating the benefits of apprenticeships both internally and externally and sharing best practice with local partners. Co-op’s Levy Share helps businesses to create apprenticeships for underrepresented groups, recently committing to £70m to create 7,000 opportunities by 2030.
Apprenticeships that leave no one behind
50,000 new apprenticeships is an ambitious pledge, and with big ambitions must come big ideas. The core test will not be whether we can create more starts on paper, but whether the apprenticeship system will be truly set up to do what it was designed to do: to provide high-quality, effective pathways into sustained employment for the communities who need them most.
