During his leader's speech at the end of the Liberal Democrat conference he said a Lib Dem government would reverse Labour's 2.5 per cent VAT cut and invest it in young people's futures.
If the Lib Dems were put into power tomorrow, he claimed, every young person in the country would be in work or training by Christmas.
Mr Clegg also pledged to pay for an additional 10,000 university and 50,000 college places in 2009.
On a new paid internship scheme with an allowance of £55 per week he said: 'We could pay for 800,000 placements for 800,000 young people for the cost of just one weekend's VAT cut.
'If it's between 15p off a cinema ticket and a decent future, I know what we should choose.'
The Lib Dem leader, whose speech failed to mention tuition fees once, went on to say: 'I have always believed that you can't make progress as a society unless every generation tries to do better for its children.
'To build a fair society, you have to start with children, and you have to start young.'
In a wide-ranging speech Mr Clegg paid tribute to UK soldiers killed in Afghanistan and called for a revaluating of the country's mission there before they 'come home defeated by political failure'.
He also stated explicitly that he wanted to be prime minister, later unveiling a fantasy Cabinet with Vince Cable at the Treasury and Chris Huhne as home secretary.
'I want to be prime minister because I have spent half a lifetime imagining a better society,' he said.
'And I want to spend the next half making it happen.'
In contrast to the 'lost' Labour government and David Cameron's 'illusion of change', the Lib Dems are the only party with which Britons could place their hope, Mr Clegg added.
'There is hope for a different future, a different way of doing things in Britain, if we are brave enough to make a fresh start,' he said
'So let today be the first day of the future of British politics. It may be only the beginning, but it is the beginning. The beginning of real change in Britain.'
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