Election 2024 – Week 1
Well that’s a wrap for the first full week of General Election campaigning. If there is one thing our sector should take away from this week it is that the Conservative Party wants to make apprenticeships one of its key offers to the electorate, making them a wedge issue between it and the Labour Party.
In an announcement earlier this week, the Conservatives promised 100,000 new apprenticeships to be funded by cutting 1 in 8 university courses, described as ‘Mickey Mouse degrees’. The politics here is obvious, investing more in apprenticeships while accusing labour of wanting to halve them. It is also a raid of the higher education sector – traditionally a home of support for Labour.
The detail is unsurprisingly thin on the ground. You may have noticed that General Election campaigns are not the time to be giving out policy detail, with parties worried that giving too much detail will reveal holes in the policy. What we do know is that the Conservatives have promised £880m for 100,000 new apprenticeships by 2029. What we don’t know is which specific degrees – paid for by student loans - will be chopped or how businesses will be engaged to take on apprentices, or the timetable for ramping this up.
On top of Rishi Sunak’s previous ‘guarantee’ to meet demand amongst SME employers for apprenticeships, this sounds like a serious offer to the electorate – and for the skills sector – and a big challenge to the other political parties.
Labour by contrast has yet to speak about skills in any great depth in this campaign, but we do know the broad outline of its headline policies – a more flexible Skills and Growth Levy, Skills England and Technical Excellence Colleges. We await further detail, but don’t be surprised if it doesn’t arrive before the election.
The Conservative apprenticeship policy announcement followed an early campaign pattern of the Conservatives announcing big new policies – national service, triple lock plus on pensions, expanded apprenticeships – while Labour has continued to focus on its missions and previously announced policies. This likely reflects the need for the Conservative Party to be bolder to make up its significant deficit to Labour in national opinion polling.
Meanwhile the campaign for the next five or so weeks is taking shape. We have the dates for some TV debates starting on 4 June, and we understand the manifestos should be launched in the middle of June just in time for postal voters, while leaving as little time as possible for policy scrutiny.
The key for the manifestos is again not to expect too much detail. Parties will be keen to avoid scrutiny and leave as much room for manoeuvre post-election. This will likely apply to Labour’s Skills and Growth Levy, which will take shape if and when the party enters government.
In the meantime, this election is an opportunity to shape the views of the next intake of parliamentarians. AELP will of course continue to promote our members, and independent training providers as a whole, but you can also play your part by inviting candidates to your premises to meet learners and employers and hear about the transformational work you do. The more MPs know about independent training providers, the more equitable policy will be.
We have provided an election toolkit to help you organise a visit, which members should have received, and AELP is always here to help you in any way we can, just get in touch!
Election 2024 – Week 1
If there is one thing our sector should take away from this week it is that the Conservative Party wants to make apprenticeships one of its key offers to the electorate, making them a wedge issue between it and the Labour Party.
