Missing teenagers suggests a worthless guarantee

More than one million teenagers have fallen through the cracks of a flagship government ‘guarantee’ to offer every school leaver a suitable post-16 education place.

Data published by the Department for Education and analysed by FE Week reveals around 1.1 million school leavers were not recorded as receiving a suitable offer since records began in 2010.

The figure, which is 6 per cent of 19 million total school leavers for the period, exposes gaps in the ‘September guarantee’ – a policy designed to ensure every 16 and 17-year-old is offered education or training.

In some areas, barely six in 10 school leavers are recorded as getting a suitable offer.

It comes as ministers make fresh promises to “guarantee” post-16 education places and commit billions in employer payments to cut the number of young people not in education, employment or training (NEET).

Guarantee in name only

For more than 15 years, councils have been legally required to “encourage and assist” young people to stay in education.

The September guarantee was introduced in 2008 to increase participation for 16 and 17-year-olds and to identify and track young people covered by the duty.

It was designed to ensure a smooth transition from school into college, training or apprenticeships.

Then in 2015 the education participation age was raised from 16 to 18.

Records reveal that around 70,000 young people a year have not received a suitable offer.

In 2025, 1.3 million teenagers left school and 94 per cent were recorded as receiving a suitable post-16 offer. This means 80,000 were not.

Those missing from the figures include teenagers who received no offer at all, those given unsuitable options, and tens of thousands who were simply “not recorded”.

Postcode lottery

Where young people live has played a role in whether they were offered a suitable post-16 education option.

While 94 per cent of young people in scope of the September guarantee received an appropriate offer last year, some councils reported compliance rates as low as 61 per cent.

Those with low rates mostly blamed data tracking and systems issues.

A spokesperson for Leicestershire County Council, which reported the 61 per cent rate, said: “We are working with our local providers and employers to increase the number and quality of opportunities available to them. We are doing this in line with DfE guidance and in partnership with organisations in the area.”

Derbyshire County Council, which recorded offering a suitable place to 85 per cent of school leavers, pointed to its own internal staff restructures, data-recording pressures, and a local increase in 16 and 17-year-olds.

It said: “Delays in schools and academies returning destination information, staff turnover, and differences in recording systems all affect how quickly offers can be formally logged – which is reflected in the ‘not recorded’ category.”

The council added it was “taking action” to improve performance by strengthening engagement with schools and ensuring it had staff capacity in its youth and family practitioner teams.

Dudley Council, which had an offer rate of 84 per cent, also told FE Week there was a “gap in the recording of numbers”, and breakdowns in receiving key information from local schools and colleges.

Connexions cuts

The September guarantee was introduced in a push to reduce NEET numbers.

However, funding of around £200 million a year for the Connexions careers service was largely scrapped in 2011, stripping councils of specialist staff.

Laura-Jane Rawlings, chief executive of Youth Employment UK, said the cuts to Connexions and local authorities in the early 2010s created a “Wild West” where many areas let youth services fall “to the wayside”.

The introduction of the EU’s GDPR personal data legislation in 2018 and the lack of a national data sharing system was also a “mess” that stopped many schools and colleges sharing student data, she added.

Meanwhile, Oxford County Council told FE Week some students “are not contactable”.

Rawlings said some 16 and 17-year-olds simply “don’t want to stay on” in education or be “tracked” by the government.

She added: “They have got full-time jobs at Tesco, or wherever.

“They don’t want government coming and saying ‘you can do a qualification alongside this’ because they’re just ready to go to work.”

The growing unknown

The DfE’s September guarantee figures suggest that non-compliance with the policy has worsened in recent years.

Since 2019, the number of young people not receiving an appropriate offer each year has grown steadily from 56,000 to 80,000.

The 80,000 last year included 20,000 people, about 1.5 per cent of that year’s cohort, logged as receiving “no offer”, while councils reported holding “no record” of whether 44,000 received an offer.

And post-16 offers made to about 15,000 young people, about 1.2 per cent of the 1.3 million-strong cohort, were “not appropriate” because they were already in employment without training or had “other barriers to address” before education or training could be considered.

However, the DfE warned caution should be applied when using the September guarantee statistics as the quality of data can “vary at local authority levels”.

Matt Dickson, professor of economic and social policy at Bath University, said that while the 94 per cent national average was “encouraging”, a national average of 3 per cent of young people whose destinations are not recorded each year suggests some are being “lost to the system”.

He told FE Week it’s also difficult to know why offers are recorded as “not appropriate”, which could be due to young people needing to go into work, or barriers such as mental health.

The professor added that young people could be recorded as “no offer” because career and study guidance has been “very patchily” delivered across the country since the government defunded Connexions.

In a study on the impact of the compulsory education participation age rising to 18 in 2015, a group of researchers, including Dickson, found the policy had little impact 10 years on.

It said “hasty” introduction of the policy amid a climate of economic austerity, changes in government and removal of local authority control of education via academy trusts all reduced the policy’s impact.

Council cuts and post-16 capacity

Councils are “unique” in their ability to convene local partners to prevent young people becoming NEET, but lack the dedicated funding to do so after years of cuts, according to the Local Government Association (LGA).

It said cuts to council funding led to a 73 per cent decline in spending on youth services between 2010-11 and 2023-24.

Meanwhile, more than a third of councils have told the membership body they are likely to ask for emergency government bailout loans in the next three years – leaving little headroom for increasing investment in specialist youth staff.

In its submission to Alan Milburn’s current review of youth unemployment, the LGA called for dedicated local “youth pathways services” to support young people at risk of becoming NEET.

It said demand for post-16 places outstripped supply, reported a shortage of provision for young people who aren’t ready for a college setting, and warned of a lack of “breadth” in curriculum options and a shortage of in-year start options.

Close relationships

Councils with high September guarantee offer rates told FE Week their effectiveness was due to “close working relationships” with schools and colleges, and investment in careers provision.

Sandwell Council in the West Midlands, which secured an appropriate offer for more than 99 per cent of its young people, said it had “robust tracking and data-sharing systems”.

This includes routinely receiving updates from providers between April and September to quickly target support at students who do not have a suitable offer for the following academic year.

A spokesperson said: “There is a clear correlation between Sandwell’s high September guarantee achievement and its consistently low NEET rates.

“Early, preventative careers guidance supports young people to make informed decisions, leading to more sustainable post-16 outcomes.

“NEET rates for 16 to 18-year-olds are now below the national average, with sustained improvement over the past three years.”

Youth solutions

The government announced a raft of measures to improve young people’s transition to post-16 education in last year’s skills white paper.

These include “automatic” enrolments at colleges, improved data sharing and a national tool for identifying children at risk of becoming NEET.

Three automatic enrolment pilots have already begun, FE Week understands, although it is unclear exactly how the process works.

Recent ‘youth guarantee’ policies include grants for hiring the unemployed or new apprentices, subsidised jobs, and the defunding of apprenticeship standards that are popular with older workers.

A government spokesperson said: “We are determined to break down barriers to opportunity to reach the prime minister’s target for two-thirds of young people to take a gold standard apprenticeship, higher training or heading to university by age 25.

“Our £2.5 billion investment into the youth guarantee and growth and skills levy will help deliver up to 500,000 opportunities to earn and learn, and we’re introducing earlier identification of those at risk of becoming NEET, better data sharing across schools, local authorities and further education providers, and stronger expectations on further education attendance monitoring.

“To build on the September guarantee, we’re also ensuring every pupil gets support from school to find a post-16 place, and trialling an auto-enrolment backstop so that any young person without a plan is given the chance to succeed.”

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: EDITION 528

Natalie Campbell

Chair, Workforce Development Trust

Start date: April 2026

Concurrent Job: Co-CEO, Belu

Interesting fact: Natalie is also the Chair of Trussell, an anti-poverty charity and community of food banks

James Whybrow

Vice Principal – Apprenticeships and Higher Education, Inspire Education Group

Start date: March 2026

Previous Job: Group Director – Apprenticeships and Employer Engagement, Inspire Education Group

Interesting fact: In 2016, James suffered a sudden anaphylactic shock on New Year’s Eve in Padstow, ending up in an ambulance at midnight. He returned the next day to finish his meal

Phoebe Dawson

Area Director – West Midlands, Association of Colleges

Start date: February 2026

Previous Job: CEO, Leicester and Leicestershire Business and Skills Partnership

Interesting fact: Phoebe overcame her fear of heights by jumping out of a plane at 13,000ft, and she is hoping to do it again

DfE gives 3-year commitment to looked-after children

A long-term multi-million pound funding commitment has been confirmed for a scheme supporting looked-after young people in post-16 education.

The Department for Education will pump £41.5 million into pupil premium plus post-16 funding over the next three years, after an evaluation of the pilot scheme found it was helping to “push back” the cliff edge of support at age 16.

The commitment until 2029 follows calls from pilot leads to extend the funding beyond one year so councils can strategically plan support for disadvantaged young people.

The funding forms part of the new ‘children, families and youth grant’, which will consolidate five funding streams, including the pupil premium plus post-16, into one grant worth £3.1 billion over three years.

Earlier this week, a report into the national rollout of the pilot was published, which had surveyed virtual school heads on how they managed to boost engagement and attainment among disadvantaged learners.

The research tracked three cohorts of local authorities that joined the pilot between 2021 and 2025 and found persistent gaps in funding and delivery.

Virtual school heads warned of a reliance on short-term projects in post-16 settings due to time-limited funding and inconsistencies in how the funding rate was doled out across England.

“Our school improvement plan is centred around three-year goals in our journey – unfortunately, the time-limited element means many plans we have for post-16 have often been short notice or one-off projects, nor can we enhance our structure further with permanent or longer-term posts,” one lead said.

The report also found a lack of parity with school funding was placing pressure on provision and called for an overhaul of the post-16 funding formula to mirror the statutory pupil premium plus in schools, alongside providing long-term funding certainty.

Some councils received as little as £110 per student, compared with £2,630 per pupil premium plus funding for looked-after children aged under 16.

But funding guidance from last month confirmed the DfE will not change the distribution formula used in 2025-26.

Two-tier system

The post-16 pupil premium plus pilot launched in 2021 with £3 million in funding for local authorities to appoint virtual school heads. These leads work with colleges, training providers and social workers to improve outcomes for looked-after young people and care leavers aged 16 to 18.

Thirty local authorities joined the first cohort, followed by an additional 28 in the second year and 94 from 2023-24. The DfE has spent around £40 million on the scheme so far.

The evaluation explored the programme up to the 2023-24 academic year and found earlier cohorts received higher overall allocations. Cohort 1 areas were awarded an average of £94,706, compared with £57,539 for those joining in cohort 3.

This reflected a funding cap that ensured councils in cohorts 1 and 2 did not see reductions of more than 15 per cent year-on-year. The cap was removed in 2024-25, meaning all authorities are now funded using the same formula.

Researchers said this change, alongside the expansion of eligibility beyond further education colleges to all post-16 settings, including apprenticeship providers, contributed to falling per-student rates.

Estimated funding per learner stood at £900 in 2021-22 and £920 in 2022-23, before dropping to £413 after eligibility widened in October 2023. Across the full 2023-24 academic year, this equated to an average of £355 per learner.

In 2023-24, average rates varied by councils depending on when they joined the pilot: £522 for councils in cohort 1, £440 for cohort 2 and £361 for cohort 3.

The report warned this was creating a “postcode lottery”, with allocations ranging from £110 to £1,257 per learner.

“This is despite DfE’s attempts to make funding allocation equitable across virtual schools and again suggests a postcode lottery effect in real terms,” it said.

Richmond residential college in cash crisis

The FE Commissioner will intervene in one of the country’s last surviving adult residential colleges after the government found “serious” cashflow pressures.

Richmond and Hillcroft Adult and Community College (RHACC), which teaches around 7,000 learners in south-west London, was issued a financial notice to improve by the Department for Education.

The intervention follows financial strains that include a near-£1.8 million DfE clawback, unsold campus sites and crippling country-wide cuts to adult education funding.

Leaders will be required to submit rolling cashflow forecasts to new FE Commissioner Ellen Thinnesen as well as plans to make staff savings and reviews of its curriculum.

The college incurred a deficit of £436,000 in 2025, a financial health grade of ‘requires improvement’, and £160,000 of unrestricted cash, according to its latest accounts.

RHACC’s chair Sharon Raj vowed in the accounts that the college’s cash balance would not fall below £100,000 and it would improve its unrestricted cash position. But she added the college was still reviewing staff and funded course cuts to offset drops in potential income from tuition fees.

Pressures on RHACC’s cash balances stem partly from a strict repayment schedule with the DfE, which made a £1,799,485 erroneous payment to the college in 2017.

Additionally, leaders had secured £5 million from Greater London Authority to redevelop its Hillcroft campus into a community learning hub, but the project collapsed in 2024 after planning permission for the residential element fell through. 

The GLA is now clawing back around £45,000 of the £200,865 claimed to date for the project.

The college was banking on the sale of the campus to stabilise its finances and repay the remaining £200,000 owed to the DfE, according to its accounts, but the site still appears to be unsold.

The college has also anticipated “significant” funding reductions from its main funders, the GLA and DfE.

RHACC had received a flat rate of £5,088,948 in adult skills funding from the GLA for the past three years. London officials have indicated they will cut individual provider allocations by 1.65 per cent from 2025-26 due to a reduction in the overall ASF allocation it receives from the DfE.

College board minutes from last July show the GLA will slash funding by around £81,000 each year for the next two years.

Additionally, the college was locked out of extra cash from the DfE to help fund college staff pay rises last year because officials distributed the money through 16-to-18 funding.

RHACC and the GLA were contacted for comment.

A Richmond Council spokesperson said: “The council has not been approached either by the college or the GLA and therefore we regard this as a matter between those parties to resolve.

“RHACC’s provision remains very important to the borough, and we hope that the current financial challenges can be resolved so these communities continue to be served.”

Skills England’s new expert network will cut red tape, not corners

Over the last 11 months, since I started in my role at Skills England, I’ve seen first-hand how we’re putting employers at the heart of the skills system. 

From engaging in place, where employers are based, to gathering insights and valuable feedback about assessment reforms and skills gaps, their guidance is vital to our work.

I’ve been so impressed with the excellent contributions made by thousands of employers who work closely with us. And I fully appreciate that their expertise will be vital to getting it right with upholding quality, simplifying the system and becoming more responsive.

Just this week Skills England announced our first ‘fast track’ apprenticeship unit, as reported by FE Week.

This battery manufacturing apprenticeship unit will help a new gigafactory in Somerset to deliver around 4,000 jobs and over £700 million in annual economic value to the south west.

To make this happen, we relied heavily on the expertise of the battery sector, mixing the knowledge of employers with data and the insight of academic experts in this field.

With their help and through our investment and infrastructure skills service, we turned this new apprenticeship unit around fast – hitting our target of meeting skills needs for major projects in three months, without reducing quality.

It’s a great example of how Skills England has been improving how we work with sector experts. Employers and learners in a key sector, right across the country, will ultimately reap the benefits.

We’re building on that through what we are calling our ‘expert network’. An important goal with this is to reduce the time burden for employers, speeding things up while keeping quality and enhanced employer expertise at the centre of our decision-making process. 

Existing stakeholders will become part of a wider community of more than 4,500 experts; employers, SMEs, providers, unions, regional partners and regulators, which means the knowledge we already rely on will now be complemented by an even richer, more diverse pool of insight.  

We heard from employers and sector partners at summits and roundtables that they want to stay involved – but they would like to do this in a way that feels proportionate, not a return to long meetings, fixed cycles or heavy admin. 

So, Skills England will take on the administrative burden and typically produce the first draft, giving members a proper starting point so that their expertise can land where it matters most. 

The focus is now on sharing insight, not struggling with process. And if a full group isn’t necessary, we will keep it light, using quick conversations, short surveys or emails instead. The whole approach is faster and more flexible, which will give people a way to contribute without the time-consuming processes everyone was keen to move away from.

But it’s not just about technical and transactional updates. 

We will also bring people together for bigger picture work, groups that look across sectors and regions, spot emerging trends, and help us understand what’s coming down the track. 

These groups will give us the real-world intelligence we need to keep the system moving at pace, making sure we’re responding to what employers, providers and learners actually need rather than waiting for a cycle to tell us it’s time.

The expert network represents a natural progression of how we already operate and will build on a huge amount of good work that has already been done.

It will allow us to capitalise on employer expertise in a more focused way, which works better for them, while adding value from training providers and other key stakeholders.  

If you’re interested in finding out more, please email us at expertnetwork.skillsengland@education.gov.uk. 

Together, we will make a real difference. By improving on how expertise is used and valued, we will be better placed than ever to close critical skills gaps, help businesses grow, and support future generations to succeed in rewarding careers.

Apprenticeships for under-19s still sinking

Young people’s share of new apprenticeship starts plunged to the lowest level in five years during the first half of 2025-26.

Apprenticeship starts going to under-19s have hovered around 28 per cent since 2021. But this fell to 23.8 per cent this year as the rush to start higher-level apprenticeships before funding was withdrawn in January saw over-25s take one in two new apprenticeships between August and January. 

Even discounting the level 7 spike, the number of year-on-year apprenticeship starts for under 19s fell from 56,470 in the first half of 2024-25 to 53,510 in the first half of this year, a 5 per cent drop. 

Level 7 apprenticeships spiked 345% in final two months

The latest government statistics reveal 226,620 new apprenticeship starts recorded nationally between August 2025 and January, a 12 per cent jump on the same period the previous year.

The level 7 spike has also had an impact on the provider mix. Colleges saw their market share dip to 19 per cent, down from 21 per cent, even though they collectively started nearly 1,000 more apprenticeships than last year. Independent training providers increased their market share to 65 per cent, up from 62 per cent.

Across all ages, level 3 early years educator was the most popular apprenticeship with 11,500 starts. This was followed by level 7 senior leader, level 7 accountancy then level 5 operations manager. The latter three of these standards have been earmarked for defunding.

Foundation apprenticeships

Updated figures show 109 young people started a foundation apprenticeship between their launch in August and January. Of those, 40 started between August and October, up from the initially reported 36.

Onsite trades remained the most popular foundation apprenticeship, with 39 starts. Engineering and manufacturing followed with 33, then building services engineering with 30. Health and social care had six, while just one young person had started the hardware, network and infrastructure foundation apprenticeship. 

There remained zero starts on the finishing trades and software and data courses.

New foundation apprenticeships in retail and hospitality are due to launch in April. 

South Devon College claimed the highest number of starts (26) followed by GEM Partnership (18) and then Exeter and North Devon College (17). 

Newbury’s PFI quadrupled build cost of campus

A college campus funded by a PFI deal will have cost four times the build price when the deal ends, FE Week can reveal.

Newbury College is thought to be one of only a few English colleges to have set up a private finance initiative, which it used for a £10 million campus that opened in 2002.

Under terms agreed at the outset, it will have repaid £40.5 million when the contract ends after 25 years in July next year.

In response to a freedom of information request, the West Berkshire college said annual PFI costs were between £1.2 million and £1.5 million for the first 15 years of the deal.

But since 2018 the annual charge has increased – hitting a peak of £2.5 million last July.

The costs include debt repayment for the construction project, interest, “lifecycle” payments for major building upkeep, and other bills such as maintenance, cleaning and security.

Last year the Department for Education placed the college in intervention due to its “fragile” financial position. Ministers also approved a £1.5 million emergency loan in December. Newbury is one of the country’s smallest colleges with an annual income of £15 million.

Assessments of the its financial problems pointed to “very high” PFI repayments, delayed payments from a 2023 land sale, and missed new learner targets in 2024-25.

The FE Commissioner’s decision on whether Newbury should merge with another college is due this summer.

Newbury has agreed around 130 PFI contract “variations” since 2002, altering terms that include what can be taught in classrooms and the exact days or hours buildings are accessible.

In the five-year run up to the college taking full control of the campus, it has faced separate costs of about £1 million for hiring in-house facilities managers, building surveys and external legal advice.

Value for money?

Estimates suggest PFI costs the public purse up to 40 per cent more than government-funded projects.

However, the Labour government is again considering using private capital to fund new projects “where value for money for taxpayers can be secured”.

Spencer van der Werf, managing director of facilities adviser Help for Schools, said Newbury’s charges appeared to be “within the normal range” of similar PFI deals and costs would have been made clear to management at the outset.

He explained PFI charges become unaffordable for a range of reasons, including energy costs going “through the roof”, reductions in government funding, and “poor management”.

However, the government has never paid Newbury College additional grant funding to meet PFI costs, known as “credits”, while some schools and local authorities have received support.

College minutes from 2023 show management was frustrated with facilities management contractor Mitie’s “unacceptable” service around security, landscaping and cleaning. These concerns are understood to have been resolved.

Newbury’s PFI contract was among early “pathfinder” deals launched under New Labour, funding its move to a new campus on the edge of the town.

Originally, the private finance partner was London & Regional, founded by billionaire property developer brothers Ian and Richard Livingstone.

Since 2014, the PFI contract has been owned by Equitix, which is part of global investment firm Tetragon Financial Group.

The final stages

Lee Probert, Newbury College’s principal since January 2025, said: “Visitors to our campus can immediately see the benefits that the PFI has enabled through the exceptional standard of our facilities.

“Alongside this, significant growth in student numbers in recent years and the implementation of an effective balanced budget, the college is entering the final stages of the PFI from a position of financial security and confidence.

“Our focus remains on delivering ‘careers, not courses’, providing excellent teaching and skills development for our students and communities, and ensuring a sustainable future for Newbury College.”

An Equitix spokesperson said: “It is acknowledged by all project parties that the Newbury College PFI has delivered facilities of an exceptional standard with unitary charge payments as were envisaged at the outset of the contract.

“We continue to be focused on ongoing service delivery and on working collaboratively to ensure the facility will be handed back in the required condition in 2027.”

A Mitie spokesperson said: “We are committed to providing the highest standard of services across our contracts.

“These minutes are from 2023, and since then we have continued to work with the College to strengthen service delivery.”

The DfE told FE Week it does not collect information on which colleges have PFI contracts and that its private finance team was providing “some direct assistance” to Newbury College.

ESOL results crash at under-fire Sheffield College

Sheffield College’s ESOL achievement rates have collapsed following investigations into claims of dodgy results.

Its level 1 regulated ESOL (English for speakers of other languages) achievement rate dived from 81.3 per cent in 2023-24 to just 28.4 per cent last year.

Meanwhile, the South Yorkshire college’s entry level regulated ESOL achievement rate fell from 92.4 per cent to 57.8 per cent.

The latest results, revealed in government data, follow claims of unreliable achievement rates and associated certification for ESOL students in the 2023-24 cohort.

In a statement released in February in anticipation of the statistics release, the college had said external investigations into unspecified discrepancies were ongoing, but admitted “maladministration” had been identified.

Angela Foulkes, chief executive and principal of Sheffield College, said “unsatisfactory” practices were found during an internal audit.

Major provider

The Sheffield College is the third largest ESOL provider outside of London – recording 5,350 leavers last year – and had some of the highest achievement rates of above 90 per cent.

The college’s non-regulated English language courses still achieve strong results.

In 2024-25, it scored a 96.2 per cent achievement rate from its non-regulated level 1 learners, which had 30 leavers. This compared to 98.5 per cent in 2023-24 when it had 470 leavers.

Meanwhile, non-regulated entry level ESOL provision for 1,320 leavers had an 89.7 per cent achievement rate in 2024-25, down from 96.4 per cent the previous year when 3,370 leavers were recorded.

Foulkes said: “We have completed a rigorous internal audit as part of our internal investigations into allegations affecting one curriculum area.

 “We found some unsatisfactory practice within our ESOL provision which we identified as maladministration.

“Working with the awarding organisations, this has been addressed through rigorous quality processes which has resulted in a drop in achievement results in that area of the college for 2024-25.”

The college has set up a performance improvement board to prevent a repeat of the issue.

“One of the consequences of the work that we’ve done is strengthening our approach to quality assurance and compliance,” Foulkes added.

External investigations are ongoing.

When the ESOL malpractice claims emerged last July, Sheffield College reportedly suspended two senior staff members and opened an internal investigation. The South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority and awarding organisation City & Guilds also opened probes.

The combined authority funds the provision through the adult skills fund (ASF) and has repeatedly awarded Sheffield the largest share of its budget. It received a 13 per cent increase to its ASF income in 2023-24 to £11.58 million.

The same amount was allocated in 2024-25 and 2025-26, which accounts for more than one third of the authority’s £32 million annual ASF budget.

Level 7 apprenticeships spiked 345% in final two months

Starts on level 7 apprenticeships rocketed 345 per cent in the final two months before funding was switched off for people aged over 21 – amounting to nearly 10,000 more than the previous year, new figures reveal.

Ministers controversially axed funding for the highest level apprenticeships from this January in a bid to divert resources away from executive training and towards opportunities for dwindling numbers of younger apprentices.

Stats released today covered apprenticeship starts for the first two quarters of this academic year, August 2025 to January 2026.

Starts over both quarters combined increased by over 50 per cent in the lead up to the withdrawal of funding. There were 26,200 level 7 starts between August 2025 and January 2026, a 51.9 per cent increase on the same period the previous year.

It means level 7 starts represented 11.6 per cent of all starts reported for 2025-26. At this point in 2024-25, they made up 8.5 per cent of all starts.

But level 7 starts began rocketing, particularly on the senior leader and accountancy standards, since September 2024, when the government first announced it would remove public funding from level 7. Ministers confirmed in May 2025 that funding for level 7 apprenticeships for those aged 22 and over would be removed from January 2026.

Soaring starts

These figures, which are provisional and can increase as training providers submit further data returns, reveal the extent of the rush on level 7 starts piling pressure on the stretched apprenticeship budget.

Increases were modest in the first quarter of this academic year; 7 per cent in August, 10 per cent in September and 15 per cent in October.

But starts soared in quarter 2, increasing by 123 per cent in November and 845 per cent in December, the final month public funding was available.

In volumes, this means there were 7,576 level 7 starts in December 2025 compared to 802 in December 2024. 

In January, once funding was removed for new level 7 apprentices aged 22 and above, starts dropped by 93 per cent from 3,106 in 2024 to 207 in 2025.

Senior leading the way

As expected, the sharpest increases in level 7 apprenticeship starts continued on the controversial senior leader standard. Today’s figures showed over 5,000 more apprentice senior leaders starting programmes in the five months leading up to the funding cut-off, 9,624 up from 4,264, compared to the previous year.

The pre-funding withdrawal rush on this apprenticeship, which attracts up to £14,000 in funding per apprentice, was particularly acute.

November saw 2.4 times more starts than the year before (3,043 up from 1,271), and December’s starts were 12 times higher than the year before (3,395 up from 274).

It means senior leader starts more than doubled in the months leading up to funding withdrawal, shooting up by 126 per cent.

But there was a larger jump, albeit with smaller volumes, in the senior people professional apprenticeship. Starts tripled in the run up to January, from 473 in 2024-25 to 1,321 in 2025-26, a 179 per cent increase.

For the accountancy and tax professional apprenticeship, the second most popular level 7 after senior leader, starts were up 32 per cent year on year between August and December.

Professional rush

Analysis broken down by individual training providers reveals the extent to which some companies rapidly expanded their level 7 intakes by hundreds of learners.

Specialist accountancy training provider Kaplan Financial recruited 2,954 level 7 apprentices between August and December 2025, 726 more than over the same period the year before – a 33 per cent increase.

BPP Professional Education also grew their level 7 offer over the period. Their senior leader starts grew from 71 over the whole of 2024-25 to 144 in the first five months of this year. BPP also recorded 190 senior people professional apprentices in the five months before funding was removed, compared to 164 in the whole of 2024-25. 

Other examples of training providers that beat, or nearly beat, their annual total for level 7 apprenticeships in the months preceding defunding include QA, Knowledgebrief, Best Practice Network and University of Reading.

Market entrants

FE Week analysis found 19 training providers began delivering level 7 apprenticeships for the first time in the run up to the funding cut off. 

Tend Training entered the market clocking up its first 480 starts across all levels between August 2025 and January 2026. Of those, 188 level 7 senior leaders were started before the funding dried up.

Just IT Training, Manchester Metropolitan University and The Opportunity Provider each recorded over 100 starts on senior leader or senior people professional apprenticeships between August and December despite not delivering them before. Others with smaller first-time entries over that period included Peabody Trust (21 senior leaders), Bournemouth University (15 solicitors) and Mary Hare (13 teachers for the sensory impaired).