Sixteen apprenticeships, including popular management standards with tens of thousands of annual starts, will be defunded as ministers attempt to divert training funding towards young people.
Work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden will tomorrow (Monday) use a speech at Waltham Forest College to announce the “biggest transformation of apprenticeships in a decade” alongside a £2.5 billion expansion of the youth guarantee and growth and skills levy.
McFadden will also confirm the first wave of seven apprenticeship units, a £2,000 apprenticeship incentive for small businesses and the introduction of foundation apprenticeships in retail and hospitality.
To resolve the decade-long decline in the number of young people taking apprenticeships, McFadden will take aim at standards the government believes are better suited to other forms of workplace training.
Among those standards to be defunded are the level 3 team leader, level 5 operations manager, level 4 lead practitioner in adult care, level 5 coaching professional and level 6 chartered manager (full list below).
It comes two months after funding was removed from over 21 year olds taking level 7 apprenticeships.
McFadden said: “We are focusing funding where it’s needed most and giving employers the flexibility and support they’ve asked for.
“These reforms will give young people a vital first step on the career ladder and help business leaders recruit the talent that will grow their companies.”
Stream if you want to go faster
The announcement ends months of sector speculation and concern from employer groups over a “streamlining” exercise designed to divert finite apprenticeship funding towards younger learners, first signalled by the chancellor in last year’s budget.
Ministers are concerned about spiralling numbers of expensive higher-level apprenticeships being taken up by older workers, while starts at lower levels and among young people have crashed.
Apprenticeships in leadership and management quickly emerged as likely targets. Skills minister Jacqui Smith previously told FE Week those programmes were “not only not what people would traditionally think of as apprenticeships” but were areas employers should fund themselves.
FE Week found 619 independent training providers, colleges and universities currently deliver the apprenticeships targeted for defunding.
DWP told FE Week each affected training provider will be contacted following the announcement and will receive reasonable notice before funding is withdrawn. Defunding will not take place before September 1, 2026.
Team leader is the most popular apprenticeship to lose funding. Approved for delivery in 2016, it clocked 12,670 starts in the last full academic year (2024-25) across 450 training providers. Only 80 of those 12,670 apprentice starters were aged under 19.
Another popular apprenticeship, operations manager, was also introduced a decade ago. It had 12,530 starts last year across 398 training providers.
Ben Rowland, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said: “Short-term subsidies and incentives, while welcome as an emergency measure, are not the basis for a sustainable and effective system.
“The government is dismantling the current system with the defunding of a number of cherished employer-led programmes, such as the team leader and management apprenticeships, but has not yet shown what their vision for the replacement system is.”
7 apprenticeship units unveiled
Seven short courses funded through the growth and skills levy are set to launch next month, but ministers have only now revealed what programmes will be available.
DWP said this first batch of units are aligned to the government’s industrial strategy priorities, adding that more will be developed in the future.
It’s not yet clear how many teaching hours these courses will require, how they will be assessed or how they will be funded, despite April’s launch date.
The first apprenticeship units are:
- AI leadership – developing AI strategy
- Electric vehicle charging point installation and maintenance
- Electrical fitting and assembly
- Mechanical fitting and assembly
- Permanent modular building assembly
- Solar PV installation and maintenance
- Welding
Hospitable foundations
The first seven foundation apprenticeships, which are level 2 apprenticeships aimed at young people lasting eight months, were launched in August 2025 in the construction sector, digital, engineering and manufacturing and health and social care.
However, official data covering the first few months of starts on foundation apprenticeships showed there were just 36. Two programmes, finishing trades and software and data, didn’t recruit at all.
Ministers previously came under fire for excluding high-demand industries from the offer.
McFadden will confirm foundation apprenticeships in hospitality and retail will launch this April.
Small and medium sized employers will have access to an apprenticeship incentive grant worth £2,000 for each new employee aged 16-24.
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