The prime minister has pledged to “rebalance” apprenticeship spending in favour of younger people by shortening the programmes and restricting employer levy investment on level 7 training.
Sir Keir Starmer also confirmed plans for new, paid “foundation” apprenticeships, which appear similar to unpaid traineeships that were axed under the previous government.
The leader used his conference speech to highlight how Labour will “get our skills system right”.
He said: “We’ve got to give businesses more flexibility to adapt to real training needs and also unlock the pride, the ambition, the pull of the badge of the shirt that young people feel when building a future, not just for themselves but for their community.”
Level 7 cuts
The Department for Education confirmed after the Starmer’s speech that this will include moving some level 7 apprenticeships outside the scope of levy funding – a policy that FE Week revealed last night.
A DfE spokesperson said: “This will involve businesses funding more of their level 7 apprenticeships – equivalent to a master’s degree and often accessed by older or already well qualified employees – outside of the levy.”
New quango Skills England will be tasked with deciding which level 7 apprenticeships will be subject to the restriction.
The Association of Employers and Learning Providers is “concerned” by the move. Chief executive Ben Rowland said: “Funding all of this [reform] through the removal of government subsidy on the majority of level 7 apprenticeships is disappointing.
“While it may not be surprising given underfunding throughout the apprenticeship system, this could have been avoided if the £800 million gap between the amount taken in by the apprenticeship levy, and the actual programme budget was plugged – or even by looking at an alternative funding model.”
Association of Colleges chief executive David Hughes said that where employers “truly value” those level 7 apprenticeships “then I hope that they invest their own money in them, showing that they provide a good return on investment”.
End of 12-month minimum duration for some
The new levy will also allow funding for shorter apprenticeships. Skills England will again decide which types of sectors this rule will be open to.
The law currently states that apprenticeships must be a minimum duration of 12 months. The policy was introduced in 2012 but some have complained the requirement is too arbitrary as apprentices can become qualified in a shorter timeframe.
Foundation apprenticeships
Starmer also announced the development of new, foundation apprenticeships that offer training to young people who are not ready to start at level two or three.
Labour teased plans to introduce a scheme similar to traineeships, scrapped by the previous government due to low take up, in June.
FE Week understands that unlike traineeships, foundation apprenticeships will be a paid job.
These new apprenticeships will “give young people a route in to careers in critical sectors, enabling them to earn a wage whilst developing vital skills”, a DfE spokesperson said.
Stephen Evans, chief executive of Learning and Work Institute, warned the government that it needs to be “careful that reforms don’t compromise quality”.
He said: “The 12-month minimum duration for apprenticeships is a somewhat crude measure, but the government should be cautious about removing this: in other countries, apprenticeships last much longer. Similarly, we need more pre-apprenticeship training, but any new foundation apprenticeships need to be more than employability training to be called ‘apprenticeships’.”
A timeline for implementation of these new levy policies is not yet known. The DfE said it will set out further details on the scope of the offer and how it will be accessed in “due course”.
Skills England’s first report, which provides an initial assessment of the nation’s working skills and future skills needs, was published during Starmer’s speech. Read the report here.
Well done for abolishing the 12 month minimum. Many students at level 2 and 3 can absorb what is needed in 6 months particularly if they are changing from one vocational area to another to improve their income
This is very beneficial for unemployed graduates to start new careers
I wrote an apprenticeship survey for Ofsted on improving apprenticeships with recommendations on both foundation apprenticeships and apprenticeship quality. The recommendations were sadly not understood properly and wrongly actioned. There were several new apprenticeships being introduced that were not worthy of the name. For example, a coffee company barista at L2 where previous training was completed within a week. Because I gave this example the Apprenticeship body interpreted it as making all apprenticeships a minimum of a year and not that everything should not be an apprenticeship. Although this time limit removal is a good thing the original recommendation of not approving everything as an apprenticeship still needs actioning.
I found that some foundation apprenticeships being offered for 16 year olds by a car manufacturer were leading to literally 100% progression to interim apprenticeships and then to 100% achievement. So the introduction of such foundation apprenticeships in other sectors for year 11 learners who did not want to do GCSEs was ignored and replaced by traineeships for older learners. I still do not trust advisors in the DFE to get these simple things right or get what needs to be done.
Working in this sector it may be lost just how much downstream opportunities exist for employees. My learners frequently move to new roles, often created for them, or move to higher roles in other organisations. This creates a cascade of opportunities in the organisation right down to new starters. Without these qualifications organisations stagnate at the top locking out opportunities for others.