No 'over-50s apprenticeship' for returning workers, minister confirms

March saw Mr Hunt tell MPs that the Government would introduce “a new kind of apprenticeship targeted at the over 50s who want to return to work”.

“They will be called Returnerships, and operate alongside skills boot camps and sector-based work academies,” he said.

“They will bring together our existing skills programmes to make them more appealing for older workers, focussing on flexibility and previous experience to reduce training length.”

Almost six months on from the announcement, the schemes available to over-50s consist of existing schemes such as DWP’s “Midlife MOT” website, as well as apprenticeships and skills bootcamps, many of which are geared as an alternative to university for young people.

Mr Gibb said that there had been a “particular drop coming out of Covid in the over-50s” and that current policy was about “signposting that age-group to all the available training”.

“We have quite a strong economy at the moment, unemployment is about 3.7 per cent, and the problem facing employers is the ability to fill posts because of our strong economy.

“We need people who have taken themselves away from the workforce, we need them to come back into work and we’re doing everything we can to make that transition as easy as possible.”

The package of support for older workers comes alongside the Government’s Lifelong Loan Entitlement, which is set to be rolled out after the next election.

This will offer people a loan of around £37,000 for people to use across their working lives in order to take different courses which can be used to, for example, change career or return to work after a period of absence.

A report earlier this year by the Work and Pensions committee said that older workers made redundant during the pandemic were half as likely to have a job within six months compared to younger workers.

Government figures show that only 5 per cent of attendees in its skills bootcamps, which are among the programmes it says are on offer to older workers, are attended by 55 to 67-year olds.

Meanwhile, ministers have admitted that there is no data for how many people have taken up the Government’s offer of a “Midlife MOT” to be taken in person at a job centre.

This works alongside some 37 “50:PLUS Champions” who are tasked with working with local employers to help them realise how they could benefit from older workers.

It comes after Jonathan Ashworth, Labour’s shadow work and pensions secretary, accused the Conservatives of “wasting” the talent of the over-50s.

In an Interview with The Yorkshire Post earlier this month, he said: “Jeremy Hunt's 'back to work budget' should be done under the Trade Descriptions Act. It's failing to get people back to work, unemployment has increased this week.

"Numbers out of work for reasons of sickness and poor health are at record levels and the consequence of not taking real meaningful action is a scandalous waste of people's talent.”