Phillipson to exempt young people from level 7 apprenticeships funding axe

Education secretary makes ‘important concession’ amid backlash from other government departments

Education secretary makes ‘important concession’ amid backlash from other government departments

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Ministers are set to row back on plans to remove public funding from all level 7 apprenticeships and include an exemption for young people aged 16 to 21, FE Week understands.

Education secretary Bridget Phillipson has written to Pat McFadden, Cabinet Office minister for intergovernmental relations, to make the “important concession” which will be applied to all apprenticeship standards at master’s level.

Her letter, seen by FE Week, said that she sought clearance from the Cabinet Office on March 3 “on the decision to remove public funding from all level 7 apprenticeships, with no exemptions”.

FE Week understands that multiple government departments rebelled against the plan and have forced Phillipson into a rethink.

Phillipson’s latest letter, dated April 23, said: “I have now agreed with other departments to proceed with an exemption for young people (who start when they are aged 16-21) across all level 7 apprenticeships. 

“An exemption for young people aligns with our opportunity mission and our intention to rebalance the apprenticeship programme to support more young people at the start of their career, as announced by the prime minister in September 2024.

“While not giving employers everything they seek, it demonstrates that government has listened to business and enables these apprenticeships to continue across all sectors where they are able to provide a route in for young people.”

‘Important concession’

Phillipson added that she hopes this “important concession enables colleagues to withdraw all conditions and support me in taking the challenging steps needed as we develop the growth and skills levy”. 

The “conditions” that the education secretary referred to are not known. 

A timeframe for when the public funding ban on level 7 apprenticeships for those aged 22 and above will begin, or when the Department for Education will officially announce the plans, is also not yet known.

Ministers have been working on controversial plans to remove level 7 apprenticeships from the scope of apprenticeship levy funding since September because the budget that the Department for Education receives from Treasury is close to going overspent, largely due to the rise in higher-level apprenticeships which are the most expensive to deliver.

The cash freed up from defunding level 7s will aid Labour’s plan to expand the apprenticeship levy into a growth and skills levy that funds a wider range of training programmes, and “rebalance” funding back to young people. Figures from 2023-24 show £238 million of the £2.5 billion apprenticeships budget was spent on level 7 programmes.

Level 7 apprenticeship starts are dominated by the accountancy or taxation professional and senior leader standards, which attract £21,000 and £14,000 respectively per apprentice. 

But other popular programmes include advanced clinical practitioner, solicitor, academic professional, chartered town planner, district nurse and community nurse specialist practitioner.

Phillipson’s letter stated that her officials will “share the communications and handling plan for the announcement of this decision with your officials, and they are happy to work with you on preparing for the announcement and on stakeholder management”.

The DfE was approached for comment.

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12 Comments

  1. Stephanie West

    A Level 7 apprenticeship is postgraduate level, and so typically a learner would be over 21, having studied an undergraduate degree from 18-21yrs first. Opening up Level 7 apprenticeships to 16-21 years does not really increase opportunity or accessibility, or solve any of the perceived problems or complaints. This is a case of smoke and mirrors in my opinion.

    • C Curtis

      The Level 7 solicitor apprenticeship accepts school leavers (so those with A Levels or equivalent so will be aged 18+) as it combines a law degree and post law degree qualification (SQE exams) .
      It is a popular option in the legal sector, bringing in people who wouldn’t enter law the ‘traditional way’.
      Mind you, it can take up to 72 months so that’s a lot for an 18 year old to consider.

        • C Curtis

          I couldn’t say but 1,653 apprentices were doing the L7 solicitor-apprenticeship at the end of 2022/23, which opens up the legal sector to those who could never reasonably afford the ridiculously expensive traditional routes.

          They certainly aren’t mid-career so likely to be younger but exact figures? I could only comment on where I work.

  2. Whilst I can see the reasons for the cap, choosing 16-21 is ridiculous. The earliest age anyone who has gone through the British education system starts a masters is 21 and if someone has done an apprenticeship undergraduate they would be at least 23 (as level 6 apprenticeships typically take 5 years). In a world where the typical level of skill needed in the job market is increasing, the cap should include up to 25.

    • Susannah

      Apart from being unviable for a cohort of almost all L7 apprenticeship standard, this approach disadvantages those who have taken a non-traditional or circuitous route through their education thus far.

  3. Steve Hewitt

    But who the hell will have enough 16-21 year olds to run a full cohort??? And, and, who is taking SIXTEEN YEAR OLDS on an L7 App… Absolutely illiterate policy making…

    • Anon

      Take a look at the underlying starts data.

      There are a bunch of under 19s. But out of the 53 standards currently live at lvl 7, there are only starts on 4 standards & all but 10 starts are on Tax Accountancy and Solicitor.

      Which begs the question. How on earth are the industries with those two occupations identifying, targeting and employing the exceptional under 19’s who can cope with a masters at that age. Also, why are no other occupations able to tap into the talents of these young geniuses (medical, clean energy, tech, HMRC fraud investigation…).

      Might we suggest that employing the brightest minds in tax & law is really just about protecting the £s of those not on PAYE & somehow their training is coming from public expenditure!

      As an aside, I’m sure some Canary Wharf type master (or mistress) of the universe is trying to engineer ‘in work’ student loans as a way to keep expenditure off the Treasury balance sheet.

      • C Curtis

        The solicitor apprenticeship isn’t L7 all the way through. It combines a law degree into it or equivalent so it starts at L4 and works its way up to L7 by the end with the SQE exams as the end point assesment.
        In fact, the first year of that apprenticeship is often academically identical to the L3 Paralegal where some providers offers a qual on par with the first year of a law degree. There’s no 18 year old with just a few A Levels jumping straight into L7 studies.

        Law apprenticeships are popular in the public sector to affordably develop new talent.

  4. CMJP

    Any Level 7 course for senior managers will not work on this basis as I am afraid most 16-21 year olds are not in a senior enough management position to be able to take such a programme. It is nonsensical to expect this age group to be able to take a Masters when even those who have gone down traditional education routes are not eligible. This is not providing better options for younger learners, it is not providing progression pathways that employers are needing and it certainly will not assist the NHS in developing the skills it badly needs. Also the Government does not fund any of this. Business/NHS/Local Government and Central Government funds it from the apprenticeship levy and all the Government is doing is not giving many businesses a chance to utilise their Levy and therefore losing it to the general pot and raising their funds this way. Has the Government looked at how much NHS money is being lost this way – money that is badly needed within the NHS itself.