Apprentices

Education is a devolved matter, and the response outlines the information for England only.

The government has committed a further £1 billion investment in young people, taking total additional investment into the Youth Guarantee and the Growth and Skills Levy to £2.5 billion over the next three years. This investment will support almost one million young people and create up to 500,000 opportunities to earn and learn.

We are transforming the Apprenticeships Levy into a new Growth and Skills Levy in England, backed by £1 billion of additional investment, creating more opportunities for young people, giving employers greater flexibility to develop the workforce they need, and supporting the industrial strategy.

To deliver our ambition of 50,000 more young people into apprenticeships we have expanded foundation apprenticeships into hospitality and retail, will launch a new level 2 administrative assistant apprenticeship from August, and are introducing a new apprenticeship hiring payment of £2,000 for non-levy paying employers, typically SMEs, that take on 16-24 year old apprentices as new employees.

We will also fully fund non-levy paying employer apprenticeships for eligible 16–24-year-olds from August 2026 and launch a £140 million pilot, in conjunction with Mayoral Strategic Authorities, to better connect young people to local apprenticeship opportunities.

The department does not publish estimates of the number of future apprenticeship starts. Apprenticeship starts figures are published here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships(opens in a new tab).