Reform Offers Apprentice Wage Credit and Attacks 'University Scam'
Reform UK unveiled an “apprenticeship wage credit” on GCSE results day, offering small firms a 30 per cent rebate on the wages of apprentices aged 16 to 18 plus a £2,000 retention bonus. The party’s education spokeswoman, Suella Braverman, urged school leavers not to fall for “the great university scam” and to learn a trade instead. Reform wants 600,000 apprenticeship starts a year, funded partly by barring foreign students from taxpayer loans.
The policy is as much cultural as economic, pitching Reform as the champion of the tradesperson against a graduate class it paints as indebted and over-credentialed. Apprenticeships are genuinely under-supplied relative to demand, so a subsidy for smaller employers addresses a real gap, though the estimated cost, up to £2bn over five years, rests on savings from scrapping loans for overseas students and “Mickey Mouse degrees” that may not add up. The framing also lands a punch on the government the day results are released, when anxieties about university costs are highest. With Reform level in the polls, its economic offer is drawing fresh scrutiny. Watch whether rivals answer with their own skills pitch and whether the sums hold.