Andy Burnham’s plan to boost vocational education and skilled trades must be matched by action to ensure more young people are in work and building long-term financial resilience, PensionBee has argued.

Yesterday, Burnham gave his first major policy speech as he seeks to become the UK's next Prime Minister, in which he set out a 10-year mission to raise living standards and pledged a greater focus on devolution, regional growth and technical skills.

Burnham said he wanted to make learning a trade as important and respected as going to university, arguing that every young person should have a clear pathway into a reindustrialised Britain through vocational education, apprenticeships or higher education.

However, PensionBee said that while encouraging more young people into skilled trades was a positive step, the “bigger challenge” was ensuring that more young people are in work in the first place.

PensionBee VP personal finance, Maike Currie, explained: “Encouraging more young people into skilled trades, and giving vocational education the same status as university, is a positive step.

“At a time when artificial intelligence is reshaping many white-collar professions, practical skills and technical careers are only likely to become more valuable.

“But the bigger challenge is ensuring more young people are in work in the first place.”

Currie stressed that the rise in the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEETs) should concern policymakers, employers and the pensions industry, given the potential long-term impact on wages, confidence and saving habits.

Under Burnham’s proposals, mayors and councils would take responsibility for helping a 'lost generation' of nearly one million young people back into employment.

Yet, Currie warned that missing the early years of work “doesn’t just mean lost wages today” but can also reduce lifetime earnings, dent confidence, and delay the habit of saving, investing, and building long-term financial resilience.

“This is as much a pension issue as it is a labour market challenge," she stated.

“Today’s workers fund today’s pensioners through the state pension while simultaneously saving for their own retirement.

“If fewer young people are working, the pension system takes a double hit: fewer people contributing today and fewer people building retirement savings for tomorrow.”

Currie argued that getting more young people into skilled trades is “only part of the answer”, warning that policymakers also need to consider whether those careers are helping people build long-term financial security.

“Knowledge and experience of a trade can build a career, but it also needs to build a pension," she added.

Indeed, PensionBee said auto-enrolment had been one of the UK’s most successful public policy interventions, but warned that it works best for those in stable payroll employment.

Currie noted that apprentices, the self-employed and those moving between short-term contracts can still fall through the cracks, meaning some young workers miss out on pension saving during the years when contributions have the greatest opportunity to benefit from compound growth.

She also cautioned against “frequent tinkering” with pensions and ISAs, arguing that policy instability can make it harder for people to plan with confidence.

“Young workers will stay in the UK, work and contribute if they believe the system rewards effort and allows them to build wealth over time,” she continued.

“That means building on what already works, not constantly changing the rules.

“The real prize is creating a generation of workers who not only earn, but also save, invest and build financial security throughout their working lives. Backing trades must also mean backing pension saving.”

---