Alan Milburn, the former Labour cabinet minister currently leading a major review into Britain's youth jobs crisis, has a modest proposal for England: a national pre-apprenticeship route to bridge the yawning gap between leaving school and actually being ready to work. The government will be told about it, presumably while checking its calendar.

The recommendation comes from Milburn's highly awaited final report, which has been delayed until after this month's budget - because nothing says urgency like scheduling a youth unemployment fix around fiscal optics. The former minister in Tony Blair's cabinet warned that action is needed to address a dramatic plunge in youth apprenticeship starts over the past decade.

The numbers are grim. As few as one in five apprenticeship starts currently go to a 16- to 18-year-old, and the number of under-19s enrolling on an apprenticeship has almost halved in a decade. Against a backdrop of soaring youth unemployment, this is the policy equivalent of watching a door slowly close while everyone debates the door's branding.

The detail lands as Andy Burnham's government delays Milburn's full recommendations until at least November, amid concerns in Downing Street that his report could sit uneasily alongside the 28 October budget. Nothing derails a jobs plan like a spreadsheet.

Milburn has signalled that a shake-up of Britain's benefits system would form a central plank of his report, alongside measures to boost job support, training and apprenticeships. In response, ministers are exploring sweeping welfare changes, including scrapping a critical disability benefit for under-25s and replacing it with a multibillion-pound package of support to get into work.

Burnham and his chancellor, John Healey, have signalled readiness to stem the government's rising benefits bill. Other senior Labour figures, including the work and pensions secretary, Pat McFadden, have said there is both a moral case and an economic one to overhaul the welfare system, as the war in the Middle East rattles the public finances. The government, meanwhile, is taking a cautious approach to avoid provoking a repeat of the welfare rebellion which forced Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves into an embarrassing and costly U-turn. Caution: historically not Labour's strong suit, but here we are.

Milburn's review had been scheduled for launch next week. Sources close to the review confirmed the delay, though they downplayed its significance. One said Downing Street was working to decide how to present the report alongside several other big reviews, including the Timms review into disability benefits, as well as the budget and the prime minister's 10-year plan for government. Because nothing helps a youth jobs crisis like a scheduling committee.

Burnham has promised to tackle the rise in the number of young people not in education, employment or training (Neet) - nearly 1 million - at the top of his agenda for power, including sweeping changes to retool technical education and apprenticeships. Currently, as few as 2% of people starting apprenticeships were previously Neet. So the pipeline from Neet to apprenticeship is less a pipeline and more a dripping tap.

Presenting his pre-apprenticeship plan, Milburn said the new programme in England would be targeted at young people who lack the qualifications, confidence, workplace experience or routines needed to secure and sustain a full apprenticeship. Delivered mainly through further education colleges, it would combine English and maths with technical learning and hands-on experience with an employer. The proposal mirrors a one-year pre-vocational pathway in Austria designed to prepare young people for progression into apprenticeships. Other countries with much lower Neet rates than the UK, including the Netherlands and Austria, have placed much greater emphasis on vocational routes, where more than half of 15- to 19-year-olds in upper-secondary education enrol in vocational programmes. In other words: the UK is late to a party that's been going on for decades.

This month, the government announced an expansion in local apprenticeship services, backed by £100m of funding, in a programme delivered by regional mayors across two years, to double the number of areas matching young people with local businesses.

Milburn said young people had been told for years to go and get an apprenticeship. "But for many young people there is a gap between leaving school and being ready for a full apprenticeship," he added. "They may need to improve their English or maths or get more experience of a workplace. And employers understandably want to know that someone is ready to turn up, learn the job and stick at it. I want a new national pre-apprenticeship route. A course done through colleges, combining English and maths, technical training and proper experience with an employer. Geared towards one thing: getting a young person into work." A radical concept: training people before asking them to do the job.