The Department for Education recently published their Apprenticeship and Levy statistics and there has been a 10% increase in people starting apprenticeships
According to the data released from Department Of Education there has been a significant increase in Apprenticeship starts over the past year. There have been 225,800 apprenticeship starts reported to date between August 2018 and January 2019 for the 2018/19 academic year. This compares to 206,100 reported in the equivalent period in 2017/18, 269,600 in 2016/17 and 264,600 in 2015/16. Of the 225,800 apprenticeship starts reported so far in 2018/19, 60.0 per cent (135,400) were on apprenticeship standards.
The Apprenticeship Levy launched on the 1st April 2017, so it is great news that the number of starts is now starting to increase two years after the Levy was launched. Taking into account that Apprenticeship Levy paying employers have two years to spend their Apprenticeship Levy pot, the increase in Apprenticeship starts will hopefully continue into subsequent quarters.
The government is delighted with the news.
Apprenticeships and Skills Minister Anne Milton said
“We overhauled the apprenticeships system almost 2 years ago to the day and we have made good and steady progress. Apprenticeships are now longer, higher-quality, with more off-the-job training and provide for a proper assessment at the end, with the Levy giving employers the flexibility to invest in the skills they need for the future. I’m delighted that thousands of employers large and small are now embracing the huge benefits apprenticeships are bringing to their business and offering people of all ages and backgrounds the chance to progress."
However it’s not all good news as the above figures are still 40,000 lower then the pre-levy numbers, the long term trend is still currently down. Furthermore, and perhaps even more worrying, there is a reduction in the lower level (2 and 3) apprenticeship starts. Whilst it is good that higher level apprenticeships are growing, the fact that there is restricted funding for non-levy employers to start an apprentice, principally in SME’s is not right. Demand is being strangled for Level 2 and Level 3 apprenticeships. On top of that, as confirmed last week by the Public Accounts committee, the budget for the next twelve months is fully committed which means that colleges will have to start turning down requests from small employers. The losers here will be young people. In my view it can’t be right that some larger employers (including government departments) are using levy funds to train accountants, actuaries and solicitors at a time when funds are starting to dry up in areas that will make a real difference such as Construction & Engineering.
So the government stats are encouraging but unless in my view the government address the issue of insufficient funding for SME’s the system is floored and a generation of young people will have been let down. The next spending review must provide a separate apprenticeship budget for the non-levy employers.