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Apprenticeships 'twice as hard to get' as university places

GOVERNMENT figures revealed by Labour yesterday show it is twice as hard for young people to get an apprenticeship than to get a university place.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills statistics show that the number of under-25s starting apprenticeships has fallen by 11,324 under the Con-Dem government. 

That means youngsters are three times more likely to get a place at Oxford than an apprenticeship with Rolls-Royce and twice as likely to earn a first-class honours degree as land a traineeship with Jaguar Land Rover. 

Shadow universities minister Liam Byrne will today propose Labour’s alternative in a speech at City of Westminster College. 

“Young people today want a real choice of an earn-while-you-learn route to degree-level professional and technical skills,” his speech will say.

“We want colleges, universities and business to come together in a new alliance as they did in the 1960s. 

“Not in two different worlds. But in one world-class system.”

Young people looking at universities are also being encouraged to ask one of 10 difficult questions of bosses on open days. 

Academics’ union UCU is asking prospective students to look past the marketing offensive and ask how much teaching is done by staff on zero-hour contacts, whether they pay workers a living wage and how much the vice-chancellor would really like to charge in tuition fees.

UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said: “Students are bombarded by information these days but so much of it is just advertising bumph.” 

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