Burnham: Public contracts must deliver more apprenticeships

Andy Burnham’s first speech since launching his bid to be the next prime minister was widely trailed to go heavy on devolution, but alongside his pledge to shift power out of Whitehall, he set out plans to use government contracts to create apprenticeships and work placements for young people, end a university-first education system and devolve employment support. FE Week looks at what he did and didn’t say.

Andy Burnham has pledged to demand more work placements and apprenticeships for young people in return for giving British companies a better chance of winning government contracts.

The former Greater Manchester mayor said public procurement rules would be changed to help domestic suppliers become “more stable and competitive,” while ensuring firms winning contracts delivered greater benefits for young people and communities.

In his first major policy speech since returning to parliament last week, Burnham attacked a procurement culture he said had focused on “chasing cut-price deals around the world” rather than supporting British-based companies.

He promised “all eligible public contracts” would be subject to “proper social value weighting”, including contracts awarded through the government’s defence investment programme.

Burnham added: “In return, we will recycle maximum benefits for our communities and our residents, for instance by requiring a much greater supply of 45-day work placements and apprenticeships for young people.”

He stopped short of giving any targets or details on what sorts of contracts would be “eligible”.

Burnham pointed to Greater Manchester’s work with employers as evidence that the approach could deliver.

He said the city region had rung round businesses and secured “1,000 extra work placements” over the past year.

“That’s 1,000 extra young lives changed every year, and it shows what a place can do when it works as one,” he said.

However, Greater Manchester’s announcement in January described employers as having pledged 1,000 placements. It is unclear how many have so far been delivered.

Requirements already exist

Using government procurement policy to lever apprenticeships is not new, but evidence the current rules are creating new opportunities is hard to come by.

A policy introduced by the Conservative government in 2015 asked government departments and agencies to consider apprenticeships and skills places when awarding contracts worth at least £10 million and lasting 12 months or more.

It meant bidders could be asked how many apprenticeships they would create if they won, with successful suppliers’ commitments then written into contracts and monitored.

But public bodies were only “strongly encouraged” to do so.

Apprenticeship-specific guidance was withdrawn in 2023 and replaced by a wider central government “social value model”, worth at least 10 per cent of the available score when in-scope bodies assess contract bids.

The model lists apprenticeships, supported internships and T Level industry placements among other jobs and skills opportunities suppliers could offer.

But public bodies are not currently required to demand apprenticeships or work placements. Guidance provides public bodies with a menu of social-value outcomes that they can decide are most relevant to the contract they’re awarding. They also have to make sure those requirements are proportionate to the value of the contract and must not create disadvantages or barriers to potential suppliers, particularly small businesses.

Respondents to a recent government consultation on including a firmer measure on jobs and skills when assessing procurements worth over £5 million warned overly prescriptive requirements could increase bureaucracy and favour large companies.

Burnham did not offer details on overcoming those barriers for smaller businesses in his speech.

Parity klaxon

Burnham also promised a “complete rethink” of how young people are supported into work, saying he was taking “very seriously” Alan Milburn’s recent report on the rise of young people not in education, employment or training.

The report warned as many as one in six young people could be out of education and employment in the next five years, up from one in eight currently, without major reforms.

Burnham said the rethink “has to start with the education system”.

“The days of a school system configured entirely around the university route will be brought to an end,” he said.

“University is great for those who want it, but when are we going to focus on the life chances of those kids who want something different?

“The country has not done that for a long, long time.”

Burnham said politicians had argued for years for parity between academic and technical education.

In a speech following Labour’s major local election losses last month, which triggered Burnham’s run for parliament, Keir Starmer himself framed doing more for “the kids who are ignored, frankly, because society often only puts those who go to university on a pedestal” and then pledged to “go much further on our investment in apprenticeships [and] in technical education”.

Burnham echoed Starmer’s sentiment, saying he would build a “clear path” for “every young person into a reindustrialised Britain.”

Today’s speech follows the Starmer government’s claim last week that it will bring to an end a “degree by default” culture through its own “new deal for young people” by removing funding from degree courses that were deemed not to deliver good outcomes.

Burnham didn’t mention any changes to funding or provider accountability in his speech today.

Devolution without the detail

The bigger idea running through Burnham’s speech was a dramatic expansion of devolution across the country.

He described Britain as “one of the most over-centralised countries in the world” and argued that economic growth had been held back by power and resources remaining in Whitehall.

“It is time for Whitehall to accept that growth cannot be ordered from the top down,” he said. “Instead, it can only be nurtured from the bottom up.”

Burnham promised what he called the “biggest rebalancing of power our country has seen”, giving regions greater control over public services, industrial policy and regeneration.

That would include powers tailored to the needs of rural areas, coastal towns and places undergoing industrial transition, as well as “more powers for London too, over education and housing”.

But education was not among the three main areas of devolution Burnham went on to identify.

His proposed “Number 10 North” operation in Manchester would support regions with reform of essential utilities, reindustrialisation and the regeneration of places.

Burnham said the new operation would be “the nerve centre of a rewired Britain” and “the conduit through which we redistribute power and resources across the UK”.

It would coordinate national and local government, support areas to set long-term economic strategies and require government departments and agencies to provide local and strategic authorities with staff and resources.

“The days of Whitehall fighting the devolution of power into the regions and nations are over for good,” Burnham said.

“I have had 10 years of fighting the Whitehall machine, blocking this place’s progress, the progress of people here, and I am simply not prepared to accept the same for any area coming after Greater Manchester.”

However, Burnham did not say whether his devolution drive would extend to 16-to-19 education, apprenticeship funding or greater mayoral control over colleges and training provision.

Nor did he explain whether the reference to giving London “education” powers would be offered elsewhere or what those powers would cover.

The only skills-related responsibility he explicitly committed to devolving was employment support.

As mayor, Burnham argued that Greater Manchester could not deliver a fully integrated adult skills and employment system because the Department for Work and Pensions retained control over employment programmes and funding.

“We will answer the call from the mayors, and particularly the mayor of the North East, for devolution of employment support,” he said.

Burnham said services should work more through community and voluntary organisations “at a grassroots level”, using organisations people trust rather than requiring them to go to “places that they fear”.

Young people who need mental health support should also receive it as part of help to enter and remain in work.

Burnham claimed the approach would reduce the welfare bill “in a way that is fair and lasting and helps people move forward”.