Recession will hit students

Students will leave university this year with fewer jobs to go to and apprentices are at risk of being laid off, he told the North of England Education Conference in Chester.

"Whatever your background or wherever you are, you will be hit by this recession," he warned. "It is not just the Neets [young people not in employment, education or training] who are vulnerable. There are new risks for apprentices. Apprentices halfway through their apprenticeships face the double disaster of losing their job and their training as their employer goes bust."

He said students about to leave university would also be hard hit. "All the evidence is that university graduates are finding it much tougher getting a job than for over a decade," he said, citing Bank of England figures from last year that suggested businesses were planning to reduce headcount by cutting back on graduate recruitment.

Willetts announced Conservative proposals for a national database of "alternative" apprenticeships to employ apprentices who lose their jobs in the recession. A new £180m careers service would be set up under a Conservative government. Universities would also be forced to publish the employment rates for their graduates so potential students can discern the best universities in terms of job prospects.

Willetts said: "One of the great failures of the past decade has been the failure to tackle the problem of low social mobility. One important role for public policy is to create a world where your fate is not determined in the early years.

The Conservative plans would include a new and independent careers service across the country, funded with £180m, to advise students of where A-level choices are likely to take them and the advantages of going to university.