What is Powell and Burnham’s Education and Skills Agenda? 

Burnham has begun his premiership with a flurry of big policy announcements and press briefings, many of them centring around education and skills reform. Ahead of Labour Conference later this week, it’s worth examining these early announcements to determine what they might mean for Burnham’s education and skills agenda and what Lucy Powell is likely to prioritise in her role as Education Secretary. Questions remain about how these reforms will be funded, which likely won’t be answered until the October 2026 Budget. 

Powell as Education Secretary 

As a fellow Manchester-based MP who backed Burnham for the Labour leadership in 2015, it’s perhaps unsurprising that Powell was appointed Education Secretary. The post may not hold the same power or pomp as Chancellor, Home Secretary, or Foreign Secretary, but Burnham’s early emphasis on overhauling education positions Powell well to be a central figure in Burnham’s government.  

That being said, with Skills England positioned within the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) and Burnham’s ambition to give control over 16-19 technical routes to mayors, it’s currently unclear the extent to which responsibility for education and skills will fall across the three bodies.  

Powell already has experience with the education brief, having served as Shadow Education Secretary from September 2015 to June 2016 under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. She has been Deputy Leader of Labour Party since October 2025.  

What Can be Expected for Education and Skills?  

In the past two weeks, Powell has stood in front of the House to set out her priorities for the Department for Education. She confirmed plans for a “broader, more inclusive” education system, citing Milburn’s interim report on Young People and Work and the risk of a ‘lost generation’ of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET), as a key priority for her department. She also highlighted the changing nature of the labour market and the need for young people to master technology in the face of artificial intelligence (AI).  

Powell spoke to early interventions and smoothing transitions between education and the workplace: two points highlighted in our Skills Commission’s recent Earning or Learning report, published in May 2026.  

These priorities follow a busy summer of announcements on education and skills from the Prime Minister. During his brief Labour leadership campaign, Burnham stated that the education system needs a “complete rethink”. He promised to finally achieve parity between academic and technical pathways and reconfigure the education system to challenge the existing dominance of the university route for young people. Indeed, in 2025, GCSE entries outnumbered Technical Award entries 16 to 1. 

The Government has already begun reforming Progress 8, England’s secondary school performance measure. Following the Curriculum and Assessment Review, ministers confirmed the EBacc would be scrapped and consulted on a revised measure that would allow up to two technical awards to count in its breadth and choice slots, with the new measure expected to first apply to GCSEs sat in 2029. Earning or Learning goes further, calling for vocational qualifications to count on an equal footing with academic subjects rather than within a capped allocation. Currently, vocational qualifications can count towards only 30% of a pupil’s Progress 8 score, forcing schools to prioritise traditional academic pathways and effectively run two separate curriculum streams.  

Burnham has announced that schools will offer technical subjects, such as manufacturing and AI, in addition to core academic learning to pupils from age 14 in England. Just this morning, the Government announced new vocational GCSEs, such as building and construction, business management and finance, and child development, will be introduced for 14-year-olds from 2029. The aim for these new GCSEs is to allow students to progress at 16 to study similar courses through V-levels and T-levels.  

These new subjects will be directly linked to local industries and job opportunities, designed to give young people a clearer route into work. However, we’re still awaiting full details of how this might work in practice, particularly in areas where employment opportunities aren’t readily available, such as in rural and coastal areas.   

Government also announced over summer that it’s committing to a new apprenticeships bursary, worth up to £4,500 per year per household. The bursary will target young people in families on Universal Credit (UC) who may currently be disincentivised to take up work and training opportunities due to the relative financial shortfall caused by forgoing social security. This forms part of a broader commitment to apprenticeship support, in which Burnham has maintained Starmer’s commitment to fully fund apprentice training for all eligible under-25s from 1 August and up to £8,000 in support for SMEs hiring young apprentices.  

Earning or Learning speaks to the financial constraints of young people trying to enter education or training. It details the real-terms erosion of financial support, highlighting that the 16-19 Bursary Fund remains at £160 million/year, substantially lower than the Education Maintenance Allowance’s £900 million/year package (adjusted to today’s prices), that it replaced in 2011.  

Discussions with our stakeholders show they are generally optimistic about the renewed attention in technical and vocational training, and the priority Burnham, Powell and the DWP are placing on improving training opportunities for young people.  

Yet, Burnham’s current focus has been largely weighted towards demand-side intervention, particularly the ambition to create parity between technical and academic pathways. He wants more people to explore training and apprenticeships as opposed to going to university.  

Stakeholders have been quick to point out that, in many areas, there’s currently no lack of demand for apprenticeships among young people. They’ve highlighted how many apprenticeship programmes are heavily oversubscribed and the most advantaged students are already picking between university and apprenticeships, especially in subjects such as engineering, finance, law, and technology. Burnham has to be careful that his efforts to rebalance education and training pathways don’t simply shift patterns of inequality and disadvantage that currently exist within traditional academic routes.  

Questions still remain about how Burnham intends to increase the supply of apprenticeships and training opportunities, given the difficulties Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) face when trying to take on new apprentices. SMEs consistently identify administrative complexity, not direct wage costs or lack of will, as the primary deterrent for engaging apprenticeships and youth employment schemes. The multiple portals, schemes and reporting requirements create friction for SMEs, who often lack the administrative capacity, dedicated HR departments and institutional knowledge to navigate them effectively. Earning or Learning recommends a single ‘Youth Opportunities for Employers’ service, creating a single digital front door for apprenticeships and placements, standardised paperwork for SMEs, local brokerage support, and fewer, better targeted incentives for participation.  

We are interested in seeing how Burnham and Powell continue to push forward their education and skills agenda at Labour Party Conference later this week. Rhiannon Tuckett-Jones will be in attendance and reporting on any major policy announcements.  

We are also expecting the much-anticipated Milburn Review to publish its final report with recommendations ahead of the October budget, which will almost certainly inform the direction of Burnham’s skills agenda.  

At Policy Connect, our Skills Commission continues to prepare to launch its inquiry into apprenticeships this Autumn.  

For more information, please contact Max Bishop (max.bishop@policyconnect.org.uk)