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New apprenticeship funding plans just out: - Bursary up to £4.5k pa for families that would be worse off on UC if their child does an apprenticeship. - 22k more college places in courses like construction - Reiteration of up to £8k payment to SMEs per apprentice

I’m so sorry Ally. My condolences to you and your family. She sounds like an amazing woman who made such a difference to so many.

Yes a good point. I’m not sure if it’s possible to work out the likely impact. I suspect relatively small but it all adds up. And impact depends on how employers respond - on which young people and roles will they focus?

Agree this is sensible, but is coming from already announced Growth & Skills Levy funding so flipside is less of that left for apprenticeship training! How much will depend on details & generosity... bsky.app/profile/step...

5. In short there's both more and less to this than there seems. It's largely allocating existing money. But broadly doing so sensibly & continuing previous Govt aim to 'pivot' apprenticeship system to young people. Matters because youth apps down 1/3 since 2017.

4. Up to £8k per apprentice at SMEs. I think this is a restatement of existing policy: £1k young apprentice payment, £2k SME hiring incentive, £3k UC jobs grant, £2k foundation apprenticeship. Rarely will anyone get all these of course (160 foundation apps last year!). Plus employer NICs relief.

3. 22k more college places very welcome. But at a quick glance it looks like this covers the young people colleges are currently teaching for free as DfE refused to fund them before! In practice, though, this is a targeted set of courses like construction so will be different YP and colleges.

2. The bursary makes sense pending details. Small number of households will be worse off under UC if their child does an apprenticeship. This aims to change that. BUT funding comes from already announced pot so will leave less for actual apprenticeship training.

New apprenticeship funding plans just out: - Bursary up to £4.5k pa for families that would be worse off on UC if their child does an apprenticeship. - 22k more college places in courses like construction - Reiteration of up to £8k payment to SMEs per apprentice

"If you don't get that work experience alongside studying, and then you struggle to get into the labour market, the risk is you're locked out of the workforce for more and more years." In @telegraph.co.uk, L&W chief exec @stephenevans.bsky.social comments on youth unemployment numbers. 🗞️

Today, almost all new electricity is coming from clean energy Once clean-energy growth consistently exceeds demand, fossil-fuel power will start to decline Source: IEA

And finally, here's public sector monthly PAYE employment changes for comparison.

For context, here's monthly change in PAYE employment in some of those more struggling sectors. (I've cut off the axis for pandemic extremes to make it easier to see changes outside that). They were adding 20k jobs a month during early 2010s, more like 10k 2015-20, losing jobs last couple of years.

Great to be cited in the Work and Pensions Committee report on youth employment, education and training today. 📑 The report includes L&W input on the need for greater support for young people outside Youth Guarantee Trailblazer areas and L&W research on the complexity of our apprenticeship system.

Out of interest, here's LFS (data quality caveat) estimates of quarterly changes in public and private sector employment over the last two years. Private sector falls driven by e.g. retail & hospitality. Employment rate overall broadly flat, propped up by health & social care growth.

Feels like welfare spend is likely to be ongoing debate so I'll add to what others have said. Working age welfare as % of GDP isn't spiking up, but drifted up a bit 1980s-2010. But (caveats re definition changes over time) how we spend it has changed: we may be achieving less with the same £. Go us!

Thanks Paul. I did high level check & think totals about right. But need to do more detailed check on components over time (where I haven’t adjusted re eg definition changes). Good point re training allowances. All so complicated which is why Ben’s work so vital. Key point: WA total not spiralling!

For some reason the graphs posted as a black background. So let's try them again!

4. All of which is to say. You can reduce working age welfare as % of GDP. But to do this sustainably you'll likely need to spend more initially (bad news for fiscal rules). And to take things in the round: DWP can't cut welfare spending sustainably on its own, without causing people real problems.

3. Also, need to see system as a whole otherwise you're just squeezing a balloon. E.g. tightening criteria or limiting spend in one place (e.g. standard UC) can push spending elsewhere if that's all you're doing. Need wider strategy on job help, employer behaviour, accessible society, childcare etc