Training providers delivering apprenticeships earmarked for defunding will face limits on new starts to prevent a last-minute recruitment surge that could blow the budget.
Work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden announced this morning that the government will remove funding from 16 apprenticeship standards – including popular management courses – that do not to support young people or the government’s industrial strategy ambitions.
The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) said the “baseline” plan is for defunding to take effect from September 1, 2026, although notice periods could be “extended by exception” where providers face a significant impact.
However, letters sent to multiple training providers and seen by FE Week show that defunding will kick in immediately for providers that do not currently deliver the standards being axed.
“Providers who did not deliver the standard in 2024-25 or have not reported starts in 2025-26 will not be permitted to begin new delivery,” the DWP wrote.
For providers that are already delivering the affected apprenticeships, funding will cease on December 17, 2026, the letters added.
Until then, new starts will be capped. Each letter seen by FE Week so far shows the limit will be set at 75 per cent of the volume each provider delivered in 2024-25 for every standard being withdrawn.
It is unclear whether the DWP will introduce different transition arrangements – such as alternative defunding dates or cap levels – for individual providers.
The department said the caps are intended to ensure removing the standards “deliver the savings needed to invest in new opportunities elsewhere in the programme, whilst still allowing a reasonable level of delivery so that providers can manage the transition and make orderly arrangements”.
It added that start limits will be set in a proportionate way to a providers recent delivery on each of the standards being withdrawn to ensure a “fair and consistent approach across all providers and prevents the surge in recruitment that has occurred previously when standards were announced for withdrawal without controls”.
The move follows a surge in level 7 apprenticeship starts in the months before funding was withdrawn for those aged 22 and over, which added further pressure to England’s already stretched apprenticeships budget.
Jill Whittaker, co-founder of HIT Training that forms part of The Opportunity Provider, said it was “refreshing to see” the government has recognised and learned from the “mistakes” of level 7 by applying a cap to the apprenticeships earmarked for defunding.
“I think it makes sense. It means a few challenging conversations with clients that have 12-month plans, but nothing we can’t work through,” she added.
The DWP stressed the restrictions apply only to new starts, with no change for existing apprentices.
“All learners already on programme must continue to be supported through to completion, and funding will remain available for this,” the department added.
DWP confirmed that this means if a provider has a 75 per cent starts cap on a standard, they start from 0 from today and can take on 75 per cent of their total starts from 2024-25 up until funding is switched off.
As an levy employer we have received a letter from the DoE stating what our cap is for the defunded apprenticeships – I didn’t see this coming and means lots of people will miss out on the opportunity!