A long-awaited level 2 administration assistant apprenticeship will only be available to learners aged under 25.
Work and pensions secretary Pat McFadden has now signed off the new standard, with starts expected from August 2026 and a funding band set at £4,000.
The approval forms part of a wider government drive to refocus apprenticeships on young people and those out of work. Ministers have today also confirmed controversial plans to withdraw funding from multiple popular management standards.
The new administration assistant apprenticeship follows six years of lobbying from large employers, including the NHS and local authorities. They have argued the programme would help tackle rising numbers of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET).
However, ministers have agreed to the standard with an age restriction.
Only learners aged 16 to 24 will be eligible to take the apprenticeship with public funding.
It is the first time an apprenticeship has been given an age limit, aside from the government’s decision to withdraw funding for level 7 apprenticeships for people aged over 21, which came into force in January.
The Department for Work and Pensions told FE Week there are “currently” no plans to apply age restrictions to other apprenticeships.
Level 2 business administration was one of the most widely used apprenticeships under the previous framework system, recording around 30,000 starts each year. About 83 per cent of those starts were by under-19s.
The framework was closed to new starts in 2020, and several attempts to introduce a replacement standard were rejected until now.
A source close to the trailblazer group that developed the new standard said the age restriction was a “shame” but understandable given pressure on the apprenticeship budget.
“While we understand the plans to pivot apprenticeships back to young people, the level 2 business administration framework was utilised very well across a wide range of employers and sectors offering in work progression especially for those who had not achieved maths and English at school or ESOL learners,” the source said.
“It is a shame they will not have the same opportunities with this standard but we know there will be huge appetite and demand and therefore even more pressure on the levy.”
England’s apprenticeship budget overspent for the first time last year. FE Week previously reported that £43 million has been added in-year to the 2025-26 budget, bringing the total to £3.118 billion.
Ministers have become increasingly concerned about the rising cost of higher-level apprenticeships taken up by older workers, while starts at lower levels and among young people have fallen sharply.
The government is now attempting to “streamline” the system to control costs. Sixteen apprenticeships – mostly popular management programmes – were confirmed today for defunding.
A level 3 business administrator standard has been live since 2017 and remains consistently among the five most popular apprenticeships, with around 12,000 starts each year.
The introduction of a level 2 administration assistant apprenticeship is also expected to be popular – and potentially expensive – even with a relatively modest £4,000 funding band.
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