Apprenticeship Reforms

The government has been carrying out a series of reforms to the apprenticeship system with the intention of making sure that apprenticeships deliver the skills that employers want and the work opportunities that people need. While employer and apprentice satisfaction rates with the existing system are very high the number of employers actually involved in the government's apprenticeship programme was running at about 15%. The Government's response, based on a 2012 review, was to give employers more control and a greater financial stake ('co-investment') in the system. This has led to the following reforms;

• The rewriting by employers of all current apprenticeship 'frameworks' to new apprenticeship 'standards' updating the content of all apprenticeships, introducing grading and end point assessments.
• The government's ambition is to achieve 3 million apprenticeship starts between 2015 and 2020. In order to help fund this and inspire participation a new Apprenticeship Levy was introduced from April 2017. This requires all employers with a pay bill over £3 million each year, to pay into the Levy and spend this money of apprenticeship training and assessment costs.
• For the 98% of all employers who are not paying the levy a new funding system that requires co-investment has been introduced except for companies with less than 50 employees recruiting apprentices aged 16-18.
• All public sector organisations will be required to make sure that 2.3% of their workforce are apprentices from 2017/18.
• The Institute for Apprenticeships oversees the new system which will still be funded via the Education & Skills Funding Agency.
• A new Digital Apprenticeship Service has been introduced for levy paying employers which will see funding being routed via employers and will support employers in their involvement with the apprenticeship system.

The broad policy picture is outlined in the government's Apprenticeship 2020 vision document published in December 2015. The full version is here and an Executive Summary here.

The government's latest official update for employers on the apprenticeship reforms is here. A fact sheet for employers summarising the apprenticeship reforms is here.

Please contact the training providers listed on this site for further information or discussion about the reforms and the future impact that they might have. You can also find more information and search for training providers using the government's Find apprenticeship training website.