Prime Minister says ‘hard hats as important as graduate caps’ as he vows to get young people working
Daily Telegraph 28/07/26
Andy Burnham has argued that Sir Tony Blair’s drive to get half of school leavers to attend university “let down” a generation of young people.
Unveiling his plan to tackle youth unemployment on Tuesday, the Prime Minister said that under his leadership Britain would “value the hard hat every bit as much as the graduation cap”.
Mr Burnham’s intervention, a rejection of three decades of policy, came amid a surge in spending on youth sickness benefits and concerns that students were being saddled with thousands of pounds of debt after studying poor-quality courses.
The Prime Minister said: “For too long in this country, students have been told that you must take the academic path to do well and to be respected.
“The whole school system has been built around it and that has let down young people seeking technical qualifications.
“I want an education system based on parity between academic and technical which gives all young people a clear path in life. From today, Britain will value the hard hat every bit as much as the graduation cap.”
Sir Tony announced his 50 per cent target for university attendance at the Labour Party conference in 1999, leading to a surge in student numbers. The target was met for the first time in 2019.
At the Labour conference last September, Sir Keir Starmer scrapped the target, replacing it with a “new ambition” for two-thirds of children to go to university or take on an apprenticeship.
The Tony Blair Institute (TBI), Sir Tony’s think tank, welcomed elements of Mr Burnham’s reforms but defended the former prime minister’s focus on more school leavers going to university, claiming that the future “belongs to the hard hat and the graduate cap alike”.
Mr Burnham, who read English at the University of Cambridge, pledged a “major shake-up” of the education system on Tuesday, arguing that technical qualifications such as bricklaying needed to be put on an equal footing with academic degrees.
In a scheme set to be rolled out from September 2028, pupils aged 14 and older will be able to gain technical qualifications alongside core subjects such as English, maths and science, and do work experience with local businesses.
The career options offered will be tailored to the jobs available in their area, with mayors given greater control over education policy.
It is expected that the new system will be based on the Greater Manchester Baccalaureate, which was introduced by Mr Burnham when he was mayor of the city despite some opposition from within Whitehall.
Under the Manchester scheme, teenagers can choose to pursue study towards a job in one of the sectors where young workers are in demand.
They are construction and the green economy, creative, culture and sport, digital and technology, education and early years, financial, business and professional services, health and social care, and manufacturing and engineering.
Under the Prime Minister’s plans, Ofsted, the education watchdog, will also be told to change the way it grades schools so that they are given greater credit for offering technical courses and preparing their students for the world of work.
The Treasury will also prioritise channelling taxpayer funding to support more vocational courses that deliver a practical route into employment.
It is understood that the scheme will be paid for by previously announced funding increases, including a proposed increase to the Department for Education’s budget to £4.7bn by 2028-29.
‘Complete rethink’
The move towards technical education mirrors Mr Burnham’s speech last month, in which he said the economy had not worked for ordinary people “from the mid-1980s onwards”.
Alongside plans for nationalisation and council housing, he said Britain needed a “complete rethink” of the education system, and pledged for “every young person growing up here a clear path into a reindustrialised Britain”.
On Tuesday, he warned that the current framework sent a message to young people who did not attend university that they were “second-class citizens”.
Speaking on a visit to Derbyshire, the Prime Minister said: “I hear wherever I go that young people are often looking for something different from education.
“We’ve had a system built for too long around the university route and it sends a message to some young people that they’re some kind of second-class citizens. And it’s just not right.
“They need an education system that works for them as well, that offers a path to all young people, that’s balanced between academic and technical.”
Mr Burnham pointed to the “principle of parity” at the heart of the German and Dutch systems, saying both countries had far fewer young people not in education, employment or training.
“I think it’s long overdue that Britain makes this change and in England particularly we build an education system that has a path at 14 for all young people and we strengthen that offer on technical education,” he added.
Ryan Wain, senior director of policy and politics at the TBI, agreed with Mr Burnham that technical education had been “undervalued” in Britain for too long.
However, he added: “Expansion of higher education has been the most consistent driver of British growth since the financial crisis, and in the age of AI demand for higher-level skills will rise, not fall.
“Universities, as the original institutions of place, can help spread the gains of this revolution to every part of the country.
“Two routes of equal standing and equal ambition – that is how Britain ends decline. Our future belongs to the hard hat and the graduate cap alike.”
Burnham’s benefits crackdown
The announcement followed Mr Burnham’s indication that he was considering toughening the conditions for young people receiving sickness benefits.
More than 430,000 people aged 16-24 are claiming sickness benefits, driven in large part by a jump in reported mental health conditions such as anxiety.
Writing in The Times, Mr Burnham said the overhaul was also about a “different approach to welfare”.
He said: “Instead of 16-year-olds leaving school with only dead ends, we’re investing early – helping young people build successful working lives from the start. It isn’t the only answer – we’ll need to look at the health of our young people too – but it is an essential part of building a country that supports success rather than pays for failure.
“I’m determined to unlock the potential of the next generation, tackle the youth unemployment crisis, and bring the welfare bill down in a way that lasts.”
Last week, The Telegraph reported that the number of young people not in employment, education or training (Neets) had reached almost a million.
In January, the Centre for Social Justice published research which showed that 700,000 university graduates were jobless and claiming benefits, more than one in seven of whom were under the age of 30.
Last month, the Institute for Fiscal Studies warned in a report that around a fifth of female and almost a third of male graduates could expect to be worse off financially than if they had not gone to university.
It found that while the “graduate premium” continued to exist for many university leavers – and still averaged around £67,000 for women and £60,000 for men – some courses such as creative arts, philosophy and languages offered poorer value for money.
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