Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, for each of the 16 apprenticeship standards being defunded, how many starts in 2024-25 were by people aged under 25.

Apprenticeship starts for the 2024/25 academic year by standard and age are published here: Apprenticeships, Academic year 2024/25 - Explore education statistics - GOV.UK.

Over the past 10 years, apprenticeship starts among young people have fallen sharply. Starts for 16–24-year-olds have declined by 40%, and over half of all apprenticeship starts are now by learners aged over 25, many of which are at higher levels. This has happened at a time when we have seen the number of young people who are NEET (not in education, employment or training) increase to nearly one million.

The changes to streamline the apprenticeship offer will help to create headroom to invest in opportunities for young people and new apprenticeship units. An equalities impact assessment was undertaken and concluded that any potential negative impacts that could arise were proportionate to our legitimate aim of rebalancing funding towards young people, delivering growth, and better aligning the programme with the Youth Guarantee and the Industrial Strategy.