Baker Dearing’s Life President Lord Baker highlighted the success of UTCs in progressing young people to apprenticeships during a House of Lords debate on the decline in graduate jobs on Tuesday 6 January.

Addressing the Department for Work and Pensions minister Baroness Sherlock, Lord Baker said these young people can earn as much as £30,000 at the age of 18.

“May I persuade her that in fact what she should be doing is persuading more schools to produce apprentices?”

Baroness Sherlock responded by paying tribute to Lord Baker’s work and remarked on “the importance of technical education, of working with employers, and looking at how we teach our young people.

The minister mentioned the government’s new ambition for two-thirds of young people to progress to university or apprenticeships and said that included a target of 10 per cent progressing to Level 4 or 5 study.

“We know getting people into the right areas with the right skills means they are much more likely to get jobs. While graduates get jobs, so do people who come through apprenticeships and significant numbers stay on with the employers who hired them.

She continued: “We completely recognise our job is government is to recognise there are challenges coming down the track. We need to be the country that recognises the opportunities, skills up our young people to take the opportunities, encourages and supports employers to train them correctly, and to work with those who are doing the teaching, and to get growth in the areas that drive jobs.”

Watch the full exchange below.