The PM’s New Target: The Pursuit of Parity

At the Labour Party Conference this week, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer announced a pivotal shift in education and skills policy. Scrapping Tony Blair’s long-standing target for 50% of young people to go into higher education, Starmer has unveiled a new goal: by age 25, two-thirds of young people will participate in university, further education, or a “gold standard apprenticeship.”

Accountancy training provider First Intuition (FI) applauds this recognition of apprenticeships as being just as valuable as higher education in building a workforce with the skills needed for the future economy. This announcement challenges the outdated idea that university is the sole definition of success and career prospects and rightly puts apprenticeships on the same footing. Accountancy apprenticeships already equip learners with life-long skills, combining academic knowledge with practical workplace experience.

This shift in mindset absolutely reflects what is being seen in a number of places:

• Around half of all students using UCAS say they are interested in apprenticeships.
• A recent Higher Education Policy Institute report shows slightly more parents would prefer their child to pursue an apprenticeship (48%) than a degree (40%).
• In FI’s 2025 employer survey of the accountancy sector, 70% actively run apprenticeship programmes, with more employers recruiting school leavers (42%) than graduates (24%).

The ambition is well-timed. But if two-thirds of young people are to reach this level of participation, parity between apprenticeships and university is essential in funding, access, recognition, and cultural value.

Clarity on what “gold standard” means?

The Prime Minister’s phrase is compelling, but still unclear. While universities predominantly deliver at Level 6, apprenticeships span Levels 2–7, from entry-level roles through to professional status. Does “gold standard” mean a particular apprenticeship level equal to undergraduate and masters degrees (such as Level 6 or 7)? Or could it mean the quality of the provider, or simply whether the route delivers strong employability outcomes?

Or perhaps a ‘gold standard apprenticeship’ simply means courses that add value to society in some way, for example by driving social mobility, filling national skills shortages, or giving young people a direct route into good careers.

Parity of apprenticeships with university and other higher education means recognising the full apprenticeship system and how apprenticeships add value in different ways. Defining what ‘gold standard’ means may help provide clarity over what elements of apprenticeships are considered equal to university courses, and ensure courses that benefit thousands of young people through vital progression pathways are not overlooked.

Ensuring sustainable delivery: employers, funding, and support

Unlike universities, apprenticeships are employer-led. Young people can only access them if businesses have the resources and confidence to offer positions.

The government therefore needs to work with employers by:

• Incentivising more opportunities in growth sectors.
• Ensuring funding keeps pace with demand – especially as apprenticeship funding is a direct Treasury cost, unlike the loans system for universities.
• Avoiding contradictory messages, such as recent cuts to Level 7 funding, which undermine confidence at the very moment apprenticeships are being elevated.
• Listen to employer’s varying needs and talk to them directly. Not all businesses want and require the same things to be successful, however they are the experts in their fields and provide real-time, on-the-ground data that can help plug skills gaps and grow the economy.
• Linking employers with high-quality training providers – ensuring employers can select training providers based upon clear and meaningful performance data.

Providers and colleges must also be supported with capacity and resources to deliver “gold standard” programmes. Without this investment, parity cannot be achieved, and the ambition cannot be met. It is still unclear how the government is going to facilitate and support employers and providers/colleges to achieve their goal.

Is there available funding in place to support this ambition?

University courses are funded through the student loans system. Apprenticeship funding on the other hand is spend of the apprenticeship budget via Treasury. If larger numbers of young people are to be encouraged to take up apprenticeships, Treasury must budget for a significant increase in demand.

Recent policy decisions, including the planned restrictions to funding of Level 7 apprenticeships, show that funding capacity is moving in the opposite direction. Without clear commitment to sustainable funding for apprenticeships, the system seems unlikely to be able to cope with the expected increase in demand without looking for savings elsewhere. Will this impact levy funding for older workers?

Given the already ‘knife-edge’ fiscal situation and seemingly unsustainable Growth & Skills Levy, there is a lot of work needed within government to reposition how they view apprenticeships. University loans are seen by government as a worthy investment in the working population, particularly as historically only 27% of student loans are paid off in full with the vast majority becoming public cost. Investing in skills education must also be seen as just that, an investment in reducing benefits, increasing tax receipts and social mobility – not just as a cost.

Driving cultural change

Parity also means addressing the structural bias in schools where university progression is still seen as the default. League tables, school incentives, and careers advice must evolve to value apprenticeships equally.

Applying to apprenticeships must also be made simpler. Unlike the streamlined UCAS process, apprenticeship applications are fragmented, employer-specific, and scattered throughout the year. For apprenticeships to be genuinely accessible, application systems need to be standardised and promoted nationally.

The government’s own ambition includes a “sub-target” “that at least 10% of young people should pursue higher technical education or apprenticeships by 2040, nearly doubling today’s figure”. This suggests that these ambitious targets will be achieved through a journey of change over decades, not years. It has taken two decades to shift participation in higher education, therefore, what reasonable change can we really expect to see over the next 5 years towards parity of apprenticeships and university?

Twenty years ago, Blair’s battle cry of “education, education, education” drove a generation towards university and helped achieve the 50% milestone. If Keir Starmer wants a defining legacy that sets about an evolution over the next twenty years, a new rally cry is needed – “Skills – it’s what you can do that counts, not just what you know.”

By Gareth John, Director at accountancy training provider First Intuition