Older Apprentices Hit With Luxury Training Surcharge
Ministers hope a 25% penalty on training over-25s will make youth apprenticeships look like the only affordable option.
WHITEHALL, Linda Sources report that ministers are weighing a plan to make employers in England cover 25% of training costs for apprentices over 25. The stated aim is to push businesses towards younger workers. The newly formed Office of Vocational Arithmetic approves, saying older apprentices have enjoyed cut-price skills for long enough.
Workers aged 16 to 24 would still have their training covered in full under the current system. For anyone older, employers would pay a quarter. Officials call it a gentle nudge towards youth employment. One diagram apparently showed that nudge in steel-toed boots, holding a calculator.
The idea forms part of the response to the youth jobs crisis. Apprenticeship starts among young people have fallen 40% over the past decade, while more than half of new starts have gone to people over 25. Ministers are now looking for ways to send more of the funding back towards younger applicants. Arithmetic has entered the building.
“At 25, they are apparently a premium add-on with optional elbow support.”
Mabel Crankshaw, spokesperson for the Committee for Economically Appropriate Birthdays, said the surcharge would help employers spot the exact point at which a trainee became “a luxury purchase”. “At 24, a learner is an investment in the future,” she said. “At 25, they are apparently a premium add-on with optional elbow support.”
Employers could still use levy funds for eligible training for younger apprentices. Older apprentices would leave them to find the remaining 25%. Several companies have already begun assessing applicants’ ages in less conventional units, including dog years, parliamentary terms and the time since they last understood a pension statement.
There are other measures on the table. Ministers are also considering extra help for employers who hire younger apprentices. A man standing nearby said this seemed reasonable, provided the government introduced a discount for anyone who had once owned a skateboard and now made a noise when standing up.
Critics of the fictional pricing model say businesses could end up comparing workers by age as though they were choosing supermarket meal deals. The Office of Vocational Arithmetic has replied with a “junior human” sticker for application forms. It will review the policy after calculating whether 25% of a lifelong career technically counts as one afternoon.