Tories' apprentice to degree plan

The Tories want apprenticeships to be able to lead to university

The Conservatives are promising to create 1,200 university places for students to move from apprenticeships in to higher education.

The policy aims to provide a vocational route into degree courses in subjects such as science and engineering.

Shadow universities secretary David Willetts says apprenticeships should "provide a ladder of opportunity and not a glass ceiling".

The proposed scheme would cost £20m per year, say the Conservatives.

Launching the proposal at the party's annual conference in Birmingham, Mr Willetts said the Conservatives wanted vocational qualifications "to gain the respect they deserve".

Self-confidence

"Many young people find themselves and discover their self-confidence when they master a skill," said Mr Willetts.

"But they should be able to go on studying afterwards when they might gain even more. If you start as an apprentice phone engineer and show a real aptitude for the academic side too, surely you should have the chance to go on and study electrical engineering at university?"

The policy proposal, if the Conservatives took office, would particularly focus on people wanting to move from apprenticeships to study subjects including science, technology, engineering and maths.

It would provide bursaries to allow students in work to take part-time higher education courses.

In July, Conservative leader David Cameron promised to create 100,000 more places for apprentices, saying the initiative would help to build family and social stability.

Mr Cameron said his party would offer small and medium businesses in England £2,000 for every person who completed an apprenticeship.

Earlier this year, Prime Minister Gordon Brown committed the government to a major expansion in the number of apprenticeships available - with the aim of creating places for one in five young people in the next decade.

In the previous decade, apprenticeship places had risen from 75,000 places to nearly 240,000, said Mr Brown.