Question to the Department for Education:

To ask the Secretary of State for Education, when the changes to the Growth and Skills Levy allocation requirements will come into effect.

This government is transforming the apprenticeships offer into a new growth and skills offer, which will provide greater flexibility to employers and learners and support the industrial strategy.

From August 2025, we will be introducing new foundation apprenticeships for young people in targeted sectors, as well as shorter duration apprenticeships. This will help more people learn new high quality skills at work and fuel innovation in businesses across England.

The first seven foundation apprenticeships will be focused on industrial strategy and priority areas including construction, engineering, health and social care and digital. We expect this to drive up to 30,000 starts on foundation apprenticeships across this Parliament. We are also reducing the minimum duration in legislation to eight months so that shorter apprenticeships are possible from August. Apprentices in green energy, healthcare, film/TV production and teaching will be among the first set to benefit from shorter duration apprenticeships. The development of the growth and skills offer will be informed by the work of Skills England and its engagement with employers, training providers and others to identify priority skills gaps and how these can be addressed.