Level 7 Apprenticeships

Andrew Western Excerpts

Tuesday 25th November 2025 Westminster Hall

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Work and Pensions (Andrew Western)]

It is a pleasure to serve with you in the Chair, Sir Edward. I congratulate the hon. Member for Chippenham (Sarah Gibson) on securing this important debate and on her considered speech on a subject where she has considerable experience, as she set out. Before I respond, I should add a declaration of my own: prior to working in politics full time, I worked for a leading global civil engineering consultancy, and have a pension with them.

As colleagues know, apprenticeships are a new and very welcome addition to the Department for Work and Pensions from the Department for Education, following machinery of Government changes set out in September. Whether at debates like this or out and about in our constituencies, it is brilliant to hear about the incredible impact that apprenticeships can have for learners, employers and our communities. This Government are on a mission to create an apprenticeship and skills system that drives growth and leaves no place or person behind. Within that, we want to ensure a particular focus on young people, who for too long have not been able to access the apprenticeship opportunities they need to get ahead.

We all know how valuable apprenticeships can be for young people in building confidence and ability at the start of their working lives and the longer-term opportunities they offer for increased earnings and career progression. We also know the benefits that young apprentices in turn bring to businesses through fresh perspectives and the chance to mould a workforce motivated to make a difference from the get-go. That is why it is such a scandal that, under the last Government, apprenticeship starts for young people fell by 40%. We therefore want to balance the programme back towards young people at the beginning of their careers.

In order to create more opportunities for young people at the start of their working lives, we need to prioritise public funding towards them. That is why, as confirmed in June, from January 2026 the Government will no longer fund level 7 apprenticeships except for young apprentices under the age of 22 and those under 25 who are care leavers or have an education, health and care plan in place.

Skills England was asked to provide insight into the impact of removing funding from level 7 apprenticeships. It engaged with more than 700 stakeholders from various sectors, employer representative bodies and young people. It was clear that, although apprenticeship training at level 7 is important for meeting the skills needs of the economy, alternative routes are well supplied. Skills England’s evidence suggested that there was unlikely to be a significant or unavoidable fall in the supply of these skills in the long term post defunding.

We are encouraging more employers to invest in upskilling their staff members aged 22 or older to level 7, which delivers benefits to both the business and the individual. Large numbers of level 7 training options, equivalent to master’s degrees, are available to employers, and those options include non-apprenticeship routes. It will be for employers to determine the most appropriate training, and that will enable Government funding to be rebalanced towards young people.

Skills England also did not find a strong enough economic rationale to exempt a small group of level 7 apprenticeship standards from de-funding. Although level 7 apprenticeships can be, and often are, a valuable route for some disadvantaged learners, a significant proportion of such apprentices are from non-deprived backgrounds, and they are significantly less likely to be deprived than those at lower levels. Compared with other apprenticeships, level 7 apprenticeships generally also have a higher proportion of older learners—particularly, for example, the senior leader apprenticeship. I recognise that the hon. Member for Chippenham was talking about architecture, and later in my contribution, I will refer to some of the points that she made on that subject. However, 99% of apprentices on that particular apprenticeship are over the age 25, so there is a specific issue there that the Government are seeking to address.

We have seen thousands of people take advantage of level 7 opportunities, and that will continue under our new approach, but we are shifting that focus to funding younger learners. As part of our ambition to rebalance apprenticeships back towards young people, it is vital that we also create more opportunities at lower levels for younger people. We know that currently it can be hard for people at such a young age who have a rough but not exact idea of what they want to do to access training that supports them to take the first steps in their careers. That is why we have introduced new foundation apprenticeships as a key first part of our growth and skills offer, to give young people a route into careers in critical sectors, enabling them to take a wage while developing vital skills.

The first foundation apprenticeships were launched in August in the construction, engineering and manufacturing, digital, and health and social care sectors. To support businesses to make the most of those opportunities, we are providing employers with up to £2,000 for every foundation apprentice that they take on and retain in their industry. It is great that there is already demand to broaden the availability of foundation apprenticeships, and work is under way to identify other sectors in which they would be welcomed.

I want to respond to some of the comments from the hon. Member for Chippenham about the architecture sector. As I said earlier, I recognise her specialism in the area and I understand her argument that level 7 apprenticeships have opened up access in architecture. In terms of the extent to which level 7 apprenticeships, compared with lower-level apprenticeships, attract people from more deprived backgrounds, we do not see anything like the number of people from disadvantaged backgrounds at level 7 that we do in other areas. I appreciate that there may be an impact when compared to the typical architecture student, but looking at level 7 apprenticeships in the round, we do not see that consistently.

The hon. Member for Chippenham is correct to highlight skills shortages in sectors that are key to delivering homes and infrastructure. As I said, the lower-level routes that we are looking at—foundation apprenticeships —have a particular focus on sectors such as construction and engineering. That will make a significant contribution to starting to address some of the skills shortages. However, I accept that for particular professions, such as surveyors and town planners, the level 7 apprenticeship route is a mechanism through which to fill key roles through which local authorities can build infrastructure.

On the subject of architecture—I appreciate that the hon. Member for Chippenham framed it as a prejudicial approach—student finance is available for people to undertake the masters qualification, subject to the usual criteria. However, overall, it is about this Government’s commitment to ensuring that apprenticeships are a mechanism to support people at the start of their careers. That is why we are so determined to make the change that we are making, to ensure that it is under-22s who benefit most from the support that is available.

The hon. Member for Chippenham asked a specific question about what assessment was done on architecture. I hope that she will forgive me for having not done my homework about her background, as I thought that I was responding to a general debate on level 7 apprenticeships. I will write to her separately to ensure that I address the points she made about flexibility and more time. I did not know I needed to be specifically equipped to respond, so I will come back to her. I hope, however, that I have explained the rationale on level 7 apprenticeships more generally.

[Jess Brown-Fuller]

Will the Minister outline the possible impacts on local authorities taking on a town planning role? There are serious budget constraints on local authorities. It is hard to keep and retain staff in a planning department, especially when they are attracted to the private sector. Local authorities use level 7 as a key tool to upskill the workforce, which aids retention. If the Government are to achieve their mission to build all those new homes, does the Minister agree that the apprenticeship route is important?

[Andrew Western]

I certainly agree that apprenticeships are an important route. The hon. Lady will be aware that there has been a significant shortage of town planners for some time, and I do not think it is reasonable to characterise these changes as the cause. I am not suggesting that that is what she is doing, but we need to be careful. She is arguing that this may exacerbate an existing problem.

We have a broader challenge with town planners that needs to be addressed. Unfortunately, they tend to qualify and go to the sort of civil engineering consultancy that I used to work for, to earn lots more money. Based on the call for evidence and the information collected by Skills England last year, we are hopeful that we can work with a number of employers, including local authorities—accepting funding constraints—and the NHS, because specific nursing routes have been excepted, having been considered a challenge early on, to look at whether they can fund level 7 apprenticeships directly. We think that is more feasible than at a lower level of apprenticeship, because there is often a long-standing existing relationship between the employer and the potential apprentice. The evidence suggests a greater willingness to invest in individuals, because employers recognise their skills and talents, and have been working to develop them for some time.

[Sarah Gibson]

My specific point earlier was about some of the built environment professions being different from big engineering firms; they are not Jaguar Land Rover. A large architectural firm—even the largest ones in London—probably has no more than 50 to 60 employees. They are small businesses and, in the same way that local authorities are constrained, they are not in a position to finance their apprentices. They rely on the levies because they are just not big enough as businesses. That makes a difference to the sector, as does the fact that it is one qualification, not a separate thing. The constraints in the profession are quite acute because of the size of the business. That makes a difference—it is not the NHS.

[Andrew Western]

If I suggested it was the NHS, I apologise, because that was not my intention. Established long-standing relationships, where an employer has invested, mean that level 7 apprenticeships may be a space to encourage conversations between employers and existing staff members, because they have proven their value.

I appreciate that architecture has a particularly long, challenging and incremental qualification route, which is the best way to describe it. That is why it is important that, when there are challenges and employers are not in the position to offer a post-graduate financing route, that that remains available. As I said, I will come back to the hon. Member for Chippenham on the questions she raised about her sector, as I had not realised we were going to drill down so particularly. She is right that architecture firms come in all shapes and sizes, from large consultancies that have an architecture or built environment function embedded in them, to out-and-out architecture practices that may not be that large. I undertake to come back to her in writing on those issues.

Question put and agreed to.