Reform UK would make training providers ‘optional’ to grow apprenticeships

Training providers would become “optional” in apprenticeship delivery under Reform UK plans to increase apprenticeship starts to 600,000 a year.

The party’s apprenticeship policy paper, unveiled by education spokesperson Suella Braverman on GCSE results day, pledged to “reverse the collapse” in starts, which stood at 353,000 in 2024-25, with a headline 30 per cent tax credit on wages for small and medium-sized businesses hiring 16- to 18-year-old apprentices.

To address employers’ concerns about apprentices leaving soon after completing, a Reform UK government would also offer a £2,000 tax-free retention bonus for those young apprentices that remain employees at the same company for another two years.

But as well as headline tax credit and retention bonus pledges, the party promised to cut “red tape” by making third-party training providers “optional” for “qualifying” small and medium-sized businesses, allowing those employers to conduct their own training of apprentices in-house.

It also suggested softening rules around off-the-job training, English and maths exit requirements, and apprentice assessment.

Baroness Alison Wolf, who served as an adviser on skills to the prime minister’s office from 2020 to 2023, called the wage credit policy “in principle a good idea” but said weakening formal training would be “very, very bad”.

“It would effectively abolish apprenticeships in a very large proportion of cases, and just replace it with a wage subsidy,” she said.

‘Suboptimal’ apprenticeship model

Currently, the only employers that can run apprenticeship training in-house are those with a wage bill of at least £3 million that pay the apprenticeship levy and choose to become an “employer provider”.

Of the 37,000 large employers that pay the levy, just 122 have opted to become an employer provider.

Reform UK argued that the current apprenticeship model is “suboptimal” because apprentices must spend six hours a week away from their regular duties to do off-the-job training, sometimes in a classroom.

It said this creates a significant cost and bureaucratic burden for employers, particularly small businesses, which must find, choose and arrange a training provider.

The party said it would remove this “psychological and practical barrier” by allowing a greater number of employers to conduct apprenticeship training in-house, according to their “professional judgment and industry standards”.

This would allow employers to focus on practical, on-the-job training or set aside time for book-based learning where necessary, while external providers would remain available but “optional”.

Young people choose apprenticeships for “proper work experience”, the party argued, adding that classroom environments are “not conducive to many people’s learning needs”.

Reform’s policy paper stated that in trades where there are implications for public safety, “qualifications will be required, but again it will be for qualified employers to map out the route”.

It added: “Where outside approval may be necessary, it should be trade associations that carry out assessments in the first instance.”

The party said it would consult on this regime in government if it won the next general election.

It also promised to scrap the exit requirement for 16 to 18 year old apprentices to achieve a level 2 qualification in English and maths to complete an apprenticeship. This rule was removed by Labour last year, but only for adults.

‘Structured training makes an apprenticeship an apprenticeship’

Association of Employment and Learning Providers CEO Ben Rowland welcomed the proposals to remove English and maths exit requirements for under-19s and make it easier for smaller employers to access incentives and bursaries.

But he questioned whether extending the scope of employers to become in-house training providers from levy-paying businesses to employers of all sizes would be popular.

He pointed out that only around 0.3 per cent of eligible employers currently choose to become employer providers, which demonstrates the expertise, capacity and commitment required to deliver apprenticeship training in-house.

Rowland said: “The magic of an apprenticeship is its unique blend of learning on and off the job. For most SMEs, dedicated off-the-job training is not a bureaucratic burden but a valuable part of developing a skilled and productive employee. Training providers also provide vital support to SMEs throughout the entire apprenticeship journey, from taking on a young person through to successful completion.

“Greater flexibility for employers is welcome, but it must not come at the expense of the high-quality, structured training that makes an apprenticeship an apprenticeship.”

Learning and Work Institute chief executive Stephen Evans said financial incentives like wage subsidies and retention bonuses “can help” increase the number of apprenticeships for young people, but apprenticeship growth “ultimately depends on a strong economy and employer demand”.

He added that apprenticeships should prepare people for a career, not just the job they’re doing today.

“That’s why off-the-job training and English and maths matter. Removing these requirements would be a mistake and would take England further out of line with leading apprenticeship systems like Germany,” Evans warned.

Jamie Cater, employment policy manager at manufacturing sector body Make UK, said businesses would welcome simplification of the apprenticeship system, but removal of off-the-job training and basic literacy and numeracy skills would “risk undermining the readiness of apprentices to move straight into work”.

600,000 starts a year

Reform’s overall goal is to reach 600,000 apprenticeship starts a year by the end of the next Parliament, almost double the 353,000 starts recorded in 2024-25.

The party’s 30 per cent wage credit for 16 to 18-year-old apprentices would be available to small and medium-sized businesses and would cover up to £4,742 per worker a year. It would only be available to those who have not completed an earlier qualification at or above that standard in that occupation.

Reform’s costings for the wage credit and retention bonus estimate a cost of between £1.4 billion and £2 billion between 2027-28 and 2031-31.

The current government apprenticeship budget is £3.3 billion a year and has been fully spent in recent years, forcing ministers to find savings by cutting public funding for some apprenticeships.

Reform did not say it would increase the overall apprenticeship budget, instead pointing to savings elsewhere, including a proposal to ban foreign students from accessing taxpayer-funded loans for university study.

The party would also “come down like a tonne of bricks on taxpayer-funded Mickey Mouse degrees from third rate universities”, with no more public subsidies for “woke nonsense like gender studies or critical race theory”.

Other proposals include creating a “one stop shop” for apprenticeship contracts, employer handbooks and paperwork, and using “automation” to speed up the apprenticeship service.

The party would also scrap the current intermediate, advanced and higher apprenticeship classifications and instead classify apprenticeships by occupation, with ranked standards within each occupation.