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shows the limit will be set at 75 per cent of the volume each provider delivered in 2024-25 for every standard being withdrawn.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”.
The move follows a surge in level 7 apprenticeship starts in the months before funding was withdrawn for those aged 22 and over, which added further pressure to England’s already stretched apprenticeships budget.
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.
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