Sarah Fraser, head of social value, Willmott Dixon
Andy Burnham's comments this week on education, apprenticeships and T Level placements should be welcomed by anyone who cares about young people, skills and growth. The politics will be debated elsewhere; the practical point is clear: if we are serious about economic growth, we have to be equally serious about the routes that allow people to be part of it.
The urgency is real. The latest House of Commons Library briefing records 735,000 unemployed 16- to 24-year-olds - a rate of 16.2%, up from 14.3% a year earlier - and 1.01 million young people not in education, employment or training, the first time that figure has passed one million since 2013. With AI reshaping entry-level work and pupils with SEND now more than one in five in England, the transition from education into work needs more care, not less. Opportunity has to be actively designed.
For too long, university was treated as the default measure of success. A stronger focus on T Levels and apprenticeships is changing that - but ambition alone is not enough. Opportunity is created through live project experience, placements, mentors and credible routes into paid work.
Construction sits at the centre of this. The country has major ambitions for housing, schools, hospitals, retrofit and infrastructure, and our sector needs more people across a widening range of roles - from trades and building services to digital, sustainability and project leadership. Young people need to see that breadth earlier, through routes that feel real, accessible and worthwhile.
What we are learning from T Levels
The T Level's 45-day industry placement gives students sustained time in a working environment, enough to understand how projects come together and where they might fit. Done well, it changes how a young person sees construction, and how construction sees them.
Since 2023, Willmott Dixon has delivered 727 weeks of T Level placements with 26 colleges across England, and since 2024 colleagues have given over 1,626 hours of mentoring, training and project support. Behind those numbers sit colleges, careers advisers, project teams and students building the confidence to take the next step.
One model will not work everywhere, so we have piloted one-to-one placements on live projects, office-based programmes, college-based employer projects and online placements where geography or travel would otherwise be a barrier. The aim is not to make the requirement easier to tick off, but to make it more deliverable, inclusive and likely to lead somewhere.
Poppy Wilkins' story brings this to life. Poppy studied a Design, Surveying and Planning T Level at North Kent College, completed more than 300 hours of site experience across two Willmott Dixon projects and joined our Management Trainee Programme in 2024.
This year, she represented Willmott Dixon at the House of Lords launch of the South East Construction Technical Excellence College (SECTEC). Technical education builds more than skills; it builds confidence, resilience and a clearer sense of what is possible.
Apprenticeships need the same care
Apprenticeships work when they are properly supported. In our business, 90% of direct apprentices move into permanent roles and 95% complete their training, while in Northern England 80% of the apprentices we recruited first undertook T Level placements with us. That is the pathway to strengthen: early exposure, good advice, practical experience and a visible route into a career.
Apprenticeships now range from Level 2 entry routes to degree-level programmes at Levels 6 and 7 - all offering paid employment, structured study and the chance to build a career without assuming university is the only credible route.
Demand is rising, but the system is not easy to navigate. DfE data shows apprenticeship starts rose in 2024/25 and again in early 2025/26, yet the 'Find an Apprenticeship' service recorded fewer vacancies year on year, and good opportunities are fiercely competitive. I see this personally as well as professionally: my teenage son has decided an apprenticeship, not university, is the right route for him - and even with every support at home, the process can feel daunting. Vacancies open and close at different times and applying feels more like recruitment than admissions.
So it is not enough to say we support apprenticeships. We have to create more of them, make them easier to access and help employers offer high-quality places. A good apprenticeship is not a job title; it is a supported route into a profession.
Procurement can help - if it is designed well
Public procurement is a powerful lever when it sends early, clear and proportionate signals about the skills outcomes customers want to see. But expectations must not simply be passed down the supply chain in the hope they land. Many specialist and SME partners are central to training the future workforce, yet may lack the capacity, safeguarding processes or college relationships to do it alone. Main contractors, customers, colleges and government all share a role in building that support around them.
A call to collaborate
The opportunity now is to move from isolated good practice to a connected system: schools and colleges showing students the range of roles in construction; employers offering well-planned placements and apprenticeships; public bodies using procurement to encourage long-term skills development; supply chain partners supported rather than pressured; and families seeing technical routes as ambitious and credible.
Willmott Dixon is on that journey - testing models, learning from colleges and working towards our ambition to support 1,000 people facing barriers into employment by 2030. If you are a school, college, customer, local authority, supply chain partner or community organisation with ideas for how we can collaborate, we would like to hear from you.
Growth may be the headline. But opportunity will only become the reality if we build it together.