To earn or learn?

The Government has set a target of training 400,000 apprentices a year by 2020. They plan to do this by increasing the apprenticeship budget an extra £140m and offering companies incentives for taking on apprentices.

McDonald's has announced they will spend £30m on training and education for their staff and could offer the apprenticeship scheme to about 1 in 8 of their employees. They hope to recruit and train 10,000 apprentices a year.

University is becoming hugely unattractive as fees increase. An apprentice website says, "Research shows that apprentices earn, on average, over £100,000 more throughout their lifetime than other employees". The ecenomic situation will effect decisions to earn or learn over the next few years.

One might say that by 2020 smaller universities and colleges will close down, leaving the older academic institutions operating. The UK workforce will have a clearer idea of what they would like to do as a career and more emphasis will be placed on earning money than getting out of debt.