It is wrong to think all schoolchildren will take the same route to get a job the new employment minister has said, championing the right of people to start their own businesses.

 

Esther McVey, who was appointed last week in the Cabinet reshuffle, said the choices made by people to become apprentices or self employed are “equal and good and worthwhile” when compared to those who choose to go to university.

 

Ms McVey said the Conservative Party should be supporting people, no matter which route they take to employment.

 

She said: “That is what we should be doing – liberating everyone’s

potential, whether it’s a self-made individual, whether it’s someone taking the university route, whether it’s the apprenticeship route.

 

“They are all equal and good and worthwhile. To think we are all the same and going to follow the same journey, that is wrong."

 

The minister, whose father was self-employed, said a significant number of those who have claimed a New Enterprise Allowance, supporting people on benefits who want to start a new business, are aged between 18 and 24.

 

Figures last week showed more than 30 million people are in a job, an increase of almost one million over the past year, the best figures since records began in 1971.

 

Unemployment has fallen by 121,000 to 2.12 million, the lowest since the end of 2009.

 

Other figures from the Office for National Statistics showed the number of people claiming Jobseeker's Allowance fell last month, the 20th consecutive monthly fall and the lowest total since 2008.

 

More than 4.5million people were self-employed, the highest since records began in 1992, after an increase of 404,000 over the past year.