Sir Keir Starmer has scrapped the target for 50 per cent of pupils to go to university, instead pledging that Labour will aim to see two-thirds of children complete a degree or do a “gold standard apprenticeship”.
The prime minister said he no longer believed the pledge, which was made by Tony Blair in 1999 and met for the first time in 2019, was “right for our times”.
Sir Keir told the Labour party conference: “Some politicians say, ‘I want every child to have the same opportunities that I had’.
“You hear a lot of that in Westminster, but that’s not me, though.
“What I want is a Britain where people are treated with the dignity that they deserve for making different choices. Choices our country needs, choices we should value, choices that deserve our respect.
“And so, conference, while you will never hear me denigrate the aspiration to go to university, I don’t think the way we currently measure success in education – that ambition to get 50 per cent of kids to uni – I don’t think that’s right for our times, because if you’re a kid or a parent of a kid who chooses an apprenticeship, what does it say to you? Do we genuinely as a country afford them the same respect?
“Because we should, but I can’t help feeling that my dad was right.
“So, conference, today I can announce we will scrap that target and replace it with a new ambition that two-thirds of our children should go either to university or take a gold standard apprenticeship.”
The target will see two thirds of young people gain higher level skills, either through university, further education or a “gold standard apprenticeship” by the age of 25.
Labour said it will devote almost £800m extra funding for 16 to 19-year-olds next year, supporting an additional 20,000 students.
It comes as Labour seeks to crack down on the number of young people not in employment, education or training.
Rachel Reeves on Monday announced plans to offer guaranteed paid work to young people claiming benefits for more than 18 months, with the threat of having their universal credit withdrawn if they refuse.
Sir Keir and the chancellor are hoping to bring down the spiralling benefits bill by encouraging more people into work.
Think tank the Social Market Foundation welcomed the prime minister’s focus on apprenticeships.
But research director Rebecca Montacute said: “It will take a great deal of work to ensure there are enough high quality apprenticeship opportunities available to meet this target – and vitally, they must ensure those opportunities are available to those from a range of backgrounds, and not just those from better off families.”
In 1999, then Labour prime minister Tony Blair set a target of 50 per cent of young adults to enter higher education “in the next century”. Official figures show the proportion of 18-year-olds going to university in the UK was 36.4 per cent in 2024, that was down from a peak of 38.2 per cent in 2021.
Sir Keir’s speech echoed comments by Tory former education secretary Sir Gavin Williamson, who in 2020 also rejected Sir Tony’s target as “absurd” and attacked the “inbuilt snobbishness about higher being somehow better than further”.
