So, if you're in the UK it's kinda hard to miss the huge government spending review that's been taking place, huge swathes of cuts across public spending ayadayadaya.

For me, one of the more troubling announcements was that of tuition fees for Universities. I graduated in 2009 from University of Westminster, and left my university experience with ~£25,000 worth of debts, around £9,000 of which were tuition fees.

That number absolutely bloody terrifies me. I pay around £80 per month towards repaying my student debt, which means that it'll take roughly 26 years for me to repay my debt (assuming I stay on the same salary, unlikely but bear with me). 26 years. In 26 years time I'll be 48, hopefully married with kids and a mortgage, and yet still paying off that cheeky end-of-the-week dominoes bought with student loan money.

Now I can deal with that, it was part of the terms that came with going to University. But I have to tell you, the money involved really did make me think twice about going.

So what are the students sitting their A-levels now going to think? Universities able to charge up to £10k a year in tuition fees alone.

Let's do some maths.

£10,000 per annum x 3 year degree = £30,000
£14,000 in total maintenance loan.

Grand total; £44,000 to do a three year degree.

More maths, how long to repay?

Assuming £80 per month repayment (it will inevitably be more than this);

Repayment time = 45 years. You'll be paying some of it off with your pension.

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This is all fairly alarmist I know, but I am certain that prospective students (or parents) will be doing these same sums. And I reckon we'll see a large proportion simply choosing not to go to University.

But there may be a silver lining to all this.

I'm a web developer. My degree is in Photographic Science. I learned my web dev skills on my own, self-teaching.

Imagine what would happen though if business stepped in and started accepting interns from Sixth-Form leavers? Train them up within companies, get them comfortable with the company practices, methodologies and missions. You can shape these bright and eager kids into exactly the kind of workforce that you need for your organisation.

Let's take a simple example, I run a software company that specializes say, C++ programming. Instead of waiting for a Computing Science graduate to come along (and then inevitably un-teach them bad habits from their studies), I could simply take an A-Level student who studied say Maths and IT / Computing and get them trained up from day one.

The benefits are shared by everyone. Since they aren't a graduate, they will command a lower salary, saving you money. The kids are earning a wage whilst learning, saving them plunging into near bottomless debt, meaning they have more disposable to spend on cars, houses, insurance. And at the end of the day, you get a young, enthusiastic employee.

I've always felt like the graduate talent pool was supremely underused, but I'm starting to think it stretches further than that. Especially in technology industries, I know kids of 14 - 15 who can code a hell of a lot better than Comp Sci graduates. Isn't it time we started using them?

Anyone who's thinking "Doesn't this sound like a Modern Apprenticeship?" I award you an internet cookie. Apprenticeships are a fantastic, age old, idea for training up people. Maybe other industries need to start thinking about using them too?

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I've never run a business, so feasibility of this is a bit of an unknown, and I'm aware that training someone comes at a cost. This is not a hard and fast plan, but an idea that I'm casting out onto the interwebs. Let's see if anyone agrees.