Major change to apprenticeships as government vows to ‘back the next generation’

Published

6 months ago

May 27, 2025

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Ministers have pledged to “back the next generation” by investing in tens of thousands of new apprenticeships and training opportunities.

The government has promised to create 120,000 new training routes for construction workers, engineers, healthcare staff and other trades in England before the next general election.

This is part of a wider effort to increase British workers’ skills and cut net migration in the UK.

Sir Keir Starmer’s training hike will include an extra 30,000 apprenticeships in the next four years, with a budget of more than £3bn in the current financial year.

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Education Secretary Bridget Phillipson said Labour is investing in a “shared, stronger economic future” through Britain’s young people.

She said: “A skilled workforce is the key to steering the economy forward, and today we’re backing the next generation by giving young people more opportunities to learn a trade, earn a wage and achieve and thrive.

“But everyone has a role to play in a thriving economy, and we’re taking our responsibility seriously providing more routes into employment, it’s now the responsibility of young people to take them.”

From January 2026, funding will be shifted away from masters-level apprenticeships to focus on training at lower levels, although support will be maintained for those aged 16-21 and existing apprentices.

Neil O’Brien, the shadow education minister, has criticised this move, saying the “decision to scrap higher apprenticeships will do damage to the public services, particularly the NHS”.

He added: “It will make it impossible for many young people who don’t go to university to enter the professions. Numerous employers and professional bodies have warned about the damage scrapping higher apprenticeships will do, which is why this is being snuck out during recess.

“Bridget Phillipson’s decision to axe almost all higher apprenticeships is compounding the damage done by increasing national insurance which is already increasing youth unemployment.”

The immigration White Paper published earlier this month set out plans to hike the immigration skills charge by 32% to “upskill the domestic workforce and reduce reliance on migration”.

Up to 45,000 of the government’s new training places will be funded by this change.

Sarah Yong, director of policy and public affairs at the Youth Futures Foundation said: “International evidence shows apprenticeships are a highly impactful way to support young people to prepare for and access jobs, yet participation among under-25s, especially the most marginalised, has declined in recent years.

“With stubbornly high youth unemployment and inactivity, rebalancing the apprenticeship system can encourage investment in youth apprenticeships and is a first step in enabling more young people to access good work.”

Meanwhile, the Law Society urged the government to continue to fund masters-level apprenticeships for those aged over 21.

They claimed that apprenticeships “play a vital role in promoting social mobility” in the UK.

Politics

Prediction markets bet on Coinbase-linked Hassett as top Fed pick

Published

5 hours ago

December 1, 2025

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Prediction markets bet on Coinbase-linked Hassett as top Fed pick

Prediction markets Polymarket and Kalshi view Kevin Hassett, US President Donald Trump’s National Economic Council director, as the favorite to replace Jerome Powell as the next Federal Reserve chair.

The odds of Hassett filling the seat have spiked to 66% on Polymarket and 74% on Kalshi at the time of writing. Hassett is widely viewed as crypto‑friendly thanks to his past role on Coinbase’s advisory council, a disclosed seven‑figure stake in the exchange and his leadership of the White House digital asset working group.

Founder and CEO of Wyoming-based Custodia Bank, and a prominent advocate for crypto-friendly regulations, Caitlin Long, commented on X:

“If this comes true & Hassett does become Fed chairman, anti-#crypto people at the Fed who still hold positions of power will finally be out (well, most of them anyway). BIG changes will be coming to the Fed.”

Kevin Hassett’s crypto credentials

Hassett is a long-time Republican policy economist who returned to Washington as Trump’s top economic adviser and has now emerged as the market-implied frontrunner to lead the Fed.

His financial disclosure reveals at least a seven‑figure Coinbase stake and compensation for serving on the exchange’s Academic and Regulatory Advisory Council, placing him unusually close to the crypto industry for a potential Fed chair.

Still, crypto has been burned before by reading too much into “crypto‑literate” resumes. Gary Gensler arrived at the Securities and Exchange Commission with MIT blockchain courses under his belt, but went on to preside over a wave of high‑profile enforcement actions, some of which critics branded as “Operation Chokepoint 2.0.”

A Hassett-led Fed might be more open to experimentation and less reflexively hostile to bank‑crypto activity. Still, the institution’s mandate on financial stability means markets should not assume a one‑way bet on deregulation.

Supervision pushback inside the Fed

The Hassett odds have jumped just as the Fed’s own approach to bank supervision has received pushback from veterans like Fed Governor Michael Barr, who earned his reputation as one of Operation Chokepoint 2.0’s key architects.

According to Caitlin Long, while he Barr “was Vice Chairman of Supervision & Regulation he did Warren’s bidding,” and he “has made it clear he will oppose changes made by Trump & his appointees.”

On Nov. 18, the Fed released new Supervisory Operating Principles that shift examiners toward a “risk‑first” framework, directing staff to focus on material safety‑and‑soundness risks rather than procedural or documentation issues.

In a speech the same day, Barr warned that narrowing oversight, weakening ratings frameworks and making it harder to issue enforcement actions or matters requiring attention could leave supervisors slower to act on emerging risks, arguing that gutting those tools may repeat pre‑crisis mistakes.

Days later, in Consumer Affairs Letter 25‑1, the Fed clarified that the new Supervisory Operating Principles do not apply to its Consumer Affairs supervision program (an area under Barr’s committee as a governor).

If prediction markets are right and a crypto‑friendly Hassett inherits this landscape, his Fed would not be writing on a blank slate but stepping into an institution already mid‑pivot on how hard (and where) it leans on banks.