Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to increase the number of young people entering high-quality apprenticeships, particularly in places with historically low participation.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

This government is transforming the apprenticeships offer into a new growth and skills offer that will give greater flexibility to employers and support young people at the beginning of their careers.

In August, we introduced new foundation apprenticeships to give young people a route into careers in critical sectors, enabling them to earn a wage while developing vital skills. They are underpinned by additional funding for employers of up to £2,000 to contribute to the extra costs of supporting someone at the beginning of their career.

More recently, we have announced our ambition to support 50,000 more young people into apprenticeships and backed this with an additional £725 million of investment. This will enable us to expand foundation apprenticeships into sectors that traditionally recruit young people. It also provides £140 million to pilot new approaches, with Mayoral Strategic Authorities, to better connect young people aged 16–24, especially those who are NEET, to local apprenticeship opportunities.

In addition, from the next academic year, the government will fully fund apprenticeships for non-levy paying employers (essentially small and medium sized enterprises) for all eligible people aged under 25. At the moment, this only happens for apprentices aged 16-21 and apprentices aged 22-24 who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) or have been, or are, in local authority care. This change will make it easier for those employers to engage with apprenticeships by cutting costs and reducing bureaucracy for both them and their training providers.

We also provide £1,000 to both employers and training providers when they take on apprentices aged under 19, or 19-to-24-year-old apprentices who have an EHCP or have been, or are, in care. Additionally, employers benefit from not being required to pay anything towards employees’ National Insurance for all apprentices aged up to age 25, when the employee’s wage is below £50,270 a year.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to review the funding available for apprenticeship training, so that small and medium-sized enterprises can take on more apprentices.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

This government is transforming the apprenticeships offer into a new growth and skills offer that will give greater flexibility to employers and support young people at the beginning of their careers.

In August, we introduced new foundation apprenticeships to give young people a route into careers in critical sectors, enabling them to earn a wage while developing vital skills. They are underpinned by additional funding for employers of up to £2,000 to contribute to the extra costs of supporting someone at the beginning of their career.

More recently, we have announced our ambition to support 50,000 more young people into apprenticeships and backed this with an additional £725 million of investment. This will enable us to expand foundation apprenticeships into sectors that traditionally recruit young people. It also provides £140 million to pilot new approaches, with Mayoral Strategic Authorities, to better connect young people aged 16–24, especially those who are NEET, to local apprenticeship opportunities.

In addition, from the next academic year, the government will fully fund apprenticeships for non-levy paying employers (essentially small and medium sized enterprises) for all eligible people aged under 25. At the moment, this only happens for apprentices aged 16-21 and apprentices aged 22-24 who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) or have been, or are, in local authority care. This change will make it easier for those employers to engage with apprenticeships by cutting costs and reducing bureaucracy for both them and their training providers.

We also provide £1,000 to both employers and training providers when they take on apprentices aged under 19, or 19-to-24-year-old apprentices who have an EHCP or have been, or are, in care. Additionally, employers benefit from not being required to pay anything towards employees’ National Insurance for all apprentices aged up to age 25, when the employee’s wage is below £50,270 a year.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the adequacy of current apprenticeship standards in meeting the UK’s future workforce needs in the digital and green industries.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

One of Skills England’s priorities is co-creating and refining a set of education and training products with employers and other partners, including occupational standards, apprenticeships and technical qualifications. Skills England is working with employers and other experts as well as analysing data to ensure apprenticeships and technical qualifications meet the needs of the current and future workforce.

Apprenticeships and technical education in the digital route play a crucial role in developing the next generation of skilled tech professionals, equipping them with the technical expertise and practical experience needed to thrive in a rapidly evolving industry.

Skills England have approved 34 digital apprenticeship standards representing a range of technical roles (e.g. digital support, network and telecoms, cyber, software design and development, data and AI) and unlike most occupations, they underpin a range of industries and employment sectors.

Skills England also has regular meetings with other government departments including DESNZ and DWP to ensure technical education supports Industrial Strategy priority sectors such as Digital and Clean Energy in order to drive growth.

The government’s Clean Energy Superpower mission includes challenging targets to provide lower cost, clean, secure power, with good jobs. The government published a Clean Energy Industries Sector Plan in June and a Clean Energy Jobs Plan in October. These documents set out how the government will contribute to the skills pipeline by making sure skills gaps in green industries are filled through a package of recruitment and training.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what discussions they have had with employer representatives regarding barriers that prevent businesses from offering apprenticeships, and what support is being put in place to address them.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The government engages regularly with employers and their representative organisations to understand and address barriers to offering apprenticeships, as well as to inform the ongoing development of the growth and skills offer.

In addition, Skills England engaged with over 700 employers and other key organisations between November and December 2024 to establish initial views on what priority training should be accessible through the growth and skills offer. It summarised the findings of this analysis and engagement in its Skills for Growth and Opportunity report published in June.

To deliver the greater flexibility which employers have called for, this government is transforming the apprenticeships offer into a new growth and skills offer. In August we introduced new foundation apprenticeships for young people in targeted sectors, as well as shorter duration apprenticeships. From April 2026, we will introduce new short courses as part of the growth and skills offer in critical skills areas such as artificial intelligence, digital and engineering. Further detail on the offer will be set out in due course.

Additionally, from the next academic year, the government will fully fund apprenticeships for non-levy paying employers, essentially small and medium sized enterprises, for all eligible people aged under 25. This change will make it easier for smaller employers to engage with apprenticeships by cutting costs and reducing bureaucracy for both them and their training providers.

The government also facilitates and funds the Apprenticeship Ambassador Network (AAN) which comprises 2,500 employers and apprentices who volunteer to promote the benefits of apprenticeships. It operates across all parts of England through nine regional networks which provide buddying and mentoring support to small businesses to help them recruit and retain apprentices.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to improve apprenticeship retention and completion rates, particularly in sectors with high drop-out levels.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

To ensure quality apprenticeships provision, the department holds all providers to account through its apprenticeship accountability framework which encompasses a wide range of quality indicators including achievement and retention.

The support and guidance available to employers and apprentices has also been enhanced and the department has worked with the Learning and Work Institute to produce a number of guides to support apprentices’ on-programme experience, including a line manager’s guide to apprenticeships.

The department is continuing to support employers and providers to focus on quality by making systems and processes simpler whilst introducing flexibilities that will improve outcomes and maintain rigour. Improvements include the introduction of a one-click employer on-boarding process, changes to the English and maths requirements for adult apprentices, and new more efficient end-point assessment plans.

The department has also introduced tools to provide timely feedback on quality and reasons for withdrawal so that we can continue to drive forward progress in the coming years.

Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what steps they are taking to ensure that apprenticeship opportunities are fully accessible to individuals with disabilities, learning difficulties, or additional support needs.

Answered by Baroness Smith of Malvern - Minister of State (Department for Work and Pensions)

The government is working to ensure that a learning difficulty or disability is not a barrier to people who want to realise the benefits of an apprenticeship.

The Find an Apprenticeship service allows people to identify Disability Confident Employers offering opportunities and Additional Learning Support funding is available to training providers to make reasonable adjustments which support apprentices who have learning difficulties and disabilities.

The government also provides £1,000 to both employers and training providers when they take on apprentices aged under 19, or 19-to-24-year-old apprentices who have an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHC) or have been in care.