Conservative leader vows to cut 100,000 university entrants and transfer funding to apprenticeship schemes
Kemi Badenoch has vowed to double the number of apprenticeships and slash the number of university entrants by 100,000 as part of a shake-up in education funding. The Tory leader, who herself completed an engineering apprenticeship prior to attending university, confessed she was having such a ‘fun time’ that she didn’t want to leave.
During a visit to the Virgin Media O2 headquarters in Paddington, west London, on Monday (February 23), she broached the topic with apprentices. Mrs Badenoch announced her party’s intention to overhaul education funding by axing certain university courses and reallocating the savings to apprenticeships.
The Tories have previously stated that reducing the number of university entrants by 100,000 could result in government savings of £3.6 billion, which could then be used to finance an equivalent number of additional apprenticeships for 18 to 21-year-olds. This forms part of a “new deal for young people”, as reported by the Sunday Times.
On Monday, Mrs Badenoch reminisced with the apprentices, saying: “I remember when I finished my apprenticeship, I was having so much fun I didn’t want to leave.” She highlighted the necessity to “elevate” the status of apprenticeships, with Mrs Badenoch asserting that apprentice schemes “are actually a really fantastic way to learn and get in the workplace”.
Mrs Badenoch stated: “If we want to double the number of apprenticeships, we need to encourage people to take them on. That’s not just students but also parents. Many parents are the ones who say ‘no don’t do an apprenticeship’, so we’re working hard to change their mindset.”
She stated that “encouraging businesses to take on young people” was vital, whilst “taking money out of the university sector and putting it into apprenticeships” was crucial to boosting the number of schemes on offer. So we’re not spending additional public money, we’re simply shifting the way education money is being prioritised,” she said.
Following the discussion, Mrs Badenoch told the Press Association: “We know that many young people are going to university when actually they should be going on apprenticeships. I had an apprenticeship myself, so I know the value of it.
“I’m also worried that young people are getting a lot of debt from going to university and not necessarily getting a better job than if they’d taken an apprenticeship. So I’m spreading the word and letting people know about our new deal for young people.”
The most recent Department for Education figures available reveal 142,780 people started an apprenticeship during the 2025/26 academic year, up to October. The data marks a 7.7% rise from the 132,560 recorded the year before.
The Conservative leader has also pledged to slash the interest charged on certain student loans, amid widespread anxiety over costs. In the wake of Chancellor Rachel Reeves’s November budget, the earnings threshold at which repayments begin under the current system will remain frozen at £29,385 for three years, meaning many graduates will have to fork out more.
Interest on Plan 2 loans is levied at the rate of RPI inflation plus up to 3%, based on a graduate’s earnings. Mrs Badenoch has unveiled proposals to cap this at RPI alone, claiming this would enable more graduates to clear their debt.
“We want to change what is going on with Plan 2, where a lot of young people are paying more and more and they’re not clearing any of their student debt, it’s actually increasing,” she said on Monday. “And this is getting worse because of the changes that Rachel Reeves made in the budget, freezing the thresholds, meaning more money is going to be spent effectively on a tax to pay for benefits. That’s not right.
“So we want student loan payments to be inflation only, not inflation plus 3% and that’s something that’s actually going to make life a lot easier for many young people who are coming out with huge debts, they can’t buy a house, they’re not starting families, and they feel like the world is against them.”