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Dan Miller | LBC Opinion The Prime Minister is finally getting it right when it comes to early careers | LBC

This underlying narrative has also reshaped the education system. Technical, vocational and trade-focused institutions were steadily converted into universities, and the cultural message to young people became simple. If you are ambitious, you pursue further study in academia, which means university.

University is still the right route for many students. The issue is that it became the default for far too many, including those who would thrive more through practical training, work-based learning and direct routes into employment.

For a growing number of young people, the financial side of the decision is impossible to ignore.

Student debt is no longer a short-term sacrifice. For many, it functions like a graduate tax that sits in the background for years, with repayment and interest becoming a persistent drag rather than a traditional loan.

The estimated rate for student finance last year was around 6.5%, meaning many graduates don’t even cover the interest on their loans.

That context is why the Prime Minister’s recent move to push more people towards apprenticeships matters. It is not just a messaging shift, it’s an acknowledgement that the UK needs more high-level skills, and that young people need more routes to stable, well-paid work that doesn’t require taking on large debt as the price of entry.

In his announcement last month, Keir Starmer set out a renewed drive to expand apprenticeships, backed by significant new funding and targets to bring tens of thousands more young people into apprenticeship opportunities. The stated aim was to make apprenticeships easier to access, increase employer participation, and raise the status and scale of technical routes as a genuine alternative to the default degree pipeline.

That direction deserves encouragement, not undermining.

If there is one pathway that should be central to any serious early-careers strategy, it is the degree apprenticeship.

For students who already know what they want to do, a degree apprenticeship can be one of the most powerful routes into employment. You earn immediately, build real experience from day one, avoid traditional student debt and still gain higher education.

Most importantly, you finish with a direct early-career job opportunity that many graduates spend years trying to find.

The problem is not the route; the problem is awareness. Degree apprenticeships are still too often introduced late, explained inconsistently, or framed as a secondary option.

Many students discover them only after they have already committed mentally to university, or after deadlines have effectively decided the shape of their choices.

f the government wants apprenticeships to sit on equal footing, it cannot just announce targets; it needs to raise awareness in schools earlier and create a system where students understand these routes before the pressure of deadlines forces rushed decisions.

None of this is about talking young people out of university; my point is we need to stop the system that nudges them into it by default.

A healthy system is one where university is chosen because it is the best fit, not because it is the only route that is discussed seriously. It is one where apprenticeships are understood as a high-status option for ambitious young people, not a fallback.

The Prime Minister’s shift matters because it signals a recognition that the UK has overweighted one pathway for too long. That recognition is the first step. The next is delivery, and delivery is where this will be won or lost.

Keir Starmer has received a lot of criticism as Prime Minister, but there is a broader point that matters regardless of party.

When governments take the right course on issues that shape young people’s futures, they should be praised and encouraged to sustain momentum in that direction. Not because politicians need compliments, but because reform only sticks when it is reinforced and carried through.

This push for apprenticeships is a massive step in the right direction. It moves the country away from a narrow, degree-first mindset and towards a system that values skills, routes, and outcomes, and that is an inspired course correction.

The test now is whether we build on it with consistent implementation. Earlier and better careers guidance, greater employer participation, clearer pathways, and a cultural reset so that young people understand from the start that there is more than one serious way to build a career.

If we get that right, we reduce debt and build a workforce that is skilled, productive, and aligned with the UK economy.