PM Visits Apprentices In Milton Keynes

11 March 2013, 15:49

David Cameron has said that school leavers should be expected to either get an apprenticeship or to go on to study for a university degree.

Launching National Apprenticeship Week, the Prime Minister said was important that pupils had a clear idea of which path they wanted to take by the time they reached school leaving age.

Speaking at the Mercedes training centre in Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, he said it should be the "new norm' that they chose either an apprenticeship or a course in higher education"

"I want us to raise our ambitions as a country when it comes to this area,'' he said. "I want us to have as a new norm the idea that in school everyone who can either takes that path on to university or takes that path on to an apprenticeship. You should be doing one or the other. We shouldn't be saying that it is OK for people somehow to leave school at 16 without seeing a really clear path - either an apprenticeship to get you those great skills, that great training that can then lead on to a degree as well, or to stay on at school and consider a university degree. That should be the new norm in our country. That is what we should raise our sights for, raise our goal for in Britain today.''