Training providers will need to register with the government to deliver new “apprenticeship units” through the reformed growth and skills levy, it has been confirmed.
Officials also expect the content of each unit will be drawn from existing apprenticeships instead of brand new or other non-apprenticeship-related courses.
Kate Ridley-Pepper, director of work-based skills in the Department for Work and Pensions, revealed the extra details today at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers’ autumn conference.
She said this design approach will ensure that government and employers know that all apprenticeship units have “the rigour to be really high-quality products”.
However, there is uncertainty about whether apprenticeship units will be assessed.
Registration requirement
Last month’s post-16 education and skills white paper confirmed that the current apprenticeship levy will fund a selection of short courses when it is turned into the growth and skills levy from April 2026.
The short courses will be known as apprenticeship “units” and be offered initially to employers in “critical skills areas” such as engineering, digital and artificial intelligence.
Skills minister Jacqui Smith yesterday revealed during an FE Week webinar that the units’ duration will be as short as one week and up to a few months.
Ridley-Pepper confirmed this approach today before outlining which providers will be eligible to offer apprenticeship units.
“I’m sure you’ll be keen to know how you offer apprenticeship units, and I can confirm that you will need to be approved by the department in order to deliver and claim funding for apprenticeship unit delivery.
“Details of how that will work will be published near the time and shared, but I can assure you that we will try and make sure the process is simple and efficient with no duplication.”
Ridley-Pepper said the plan is to use the existing apprenticeship provider and assessment register (APAR) instead of developing a separate register.
Providers already on APAR will not need to re-register.
The skills director added that the government is also thinking about ways to ensure providers not currently on APAR can get onto the register to deliver apprenticeship units.
“That is our working assumption, we will try and ensure there isn’t a duplicative second process,” she explained.
“But we are also aware that there might be some people who are not currently delivering apprenticeships, who might be interested in units. So we’re keen to do a bit more work to figure out exactly whether there will be exceptions or differences. But wherever possible, we will try and make sure that there is one register that is the register that we use, and if you’re delivering apprenticeships, you are able to deliver apprenticeship units.”
There are 1,454 providers on APAR.
Other providers are currently only allowed to join the register if they can show they are a “provider nominated by an employer that has shown evidence of a gap in the apprenticeship provision offer” or a “provider in an area we want to grow or where we identify a capacity issue”.
Apprenticeship unit content
Ridley-Pepper also confirmed that apprenticeship units will be “built from employer designed occupational standards using quality assured knowledge and skills”, adding that the “intention there is to complement existing apprenticeships and to offer employers the greater choice in how they invest in their skills in their workforce, which they have been calling for for some time”.
She said the government is planning to lift existing content from apprenticeship standards, such as a mandatory qualification, to use as apprenticeship units.
“One of the things that employers have said to us is that, particularly for older members of their workforce looking to upskill, there are elements from existing apprenticeships which they really want their workforce to benefit from, but at the moment, the only way to do that is by enrolling someone on a full apprenticeship.
“What would be more valuable for them would be to access particular units from apprenticeships, and that not only would that save them time and be more efficient, it will also be a better use of funding that’s available.
“So those initial apprenticeship units, the intention is that the content for that will be drawn from existing apprenticeships, and that way, we know that they have the quality, the rigor, the demand from employers to be really sort of high-quality products.”
She gave an example of an employer that does not want to enrol someone on a full plumbing apprenticeship, but they want to train their worker on the heat source pump module that exists within the apprenticeship.
Assessment concern
There is however concern that providers will be able to deliver apprenticeship unit training without an element of independent assessment.
Asked about this today, Ridley-Pepper said: “So I think that will very much depend what the particular unit is and how long it is, whether, in the existing apprenticeship, there is an assessment associated with it.”
Your thoughts