Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask the Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, with reference to the proposed Growth and Skills Levy, what formal economic impact assessment he has made on the potential impact of defunding Level 3, 5 and 6 management apprenticeships on (a) economic productivity, (b) social mobility and (c) opportunities for young people, including impacts on the NEET population.

Over the past decade we’ve seen apprenticeship starts by those aged 16-24, fall by 40%. At the same time, last year, the government spent 100% of its multi-billion pound apprenticeship budget. This Government wants to reverse that decline and support 50,000 more young people into apprenticeships.

We are therefore reviewing the existing apprenticeship offer, which has grown to more than 700 standards, an outlier by international standards, to ensure it better supports young people starting their careers.

From September 2026, we will withdraw funding from 16 existing apprenticeship standards.

Three of these are generic leadership and management apprenticeships, which have grown significantly but are predominantly used as continuing professional development for established staff aged 25 and over.

In the 2024/2025 academic year, nearly 90% of apprentices on these leadership and management standards are over 25 (compared to 50% across the programme as a whole); and 83% are long-term employees (compared to 43% across the programme as whole – which is a 10-year high). This has happened at a time when we have seen the number of young people who are not in education, employment or training (NEET) increase to nearly one million. Rebalancing the programme is necessary and proportionate to achieve our legitimate aim of rebalancing funding towards the government’s priorities supporting young people and delivering growth, whilst being aligned to the Youth Guarantee and the Industrial Strategy.

We know that apprenticeships offer strong returns, and that is particularly true for young people. The changes to streamline the apprenticeship offer will help to create headroom to invest in more opportunities for young people and new apprenticeship units for adults.

Employers who value these apprenticeship standards can continue to use them on a privately funded basis.