Question to the Department for Education:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what assessment they have made of the efficacy of their Apprenticeship Incentive Scheme.

Apprenticeships are more important than ever in helping businesses to recruit the right people and develop the skills they need. To help employers offer new apprenticeships, the government’s Plan for Jobs introduced payments to employers for each new apprentice they recruit since 1 August 2020. We have now increased these payments and employers can now claim £3000 for each apprentice they take on as a new employee between 1 April and 30 September 2021. The increased payment makes it a great time for employers to offer new apprenticeship opportunities, take advantage of existing flexibilities to train apprentices in a way that suits their needs, and contribute to a skills-led recovery.

It is encouraging that employers continue to see the value apprentices can bring to their businesses. As of 3 March 2021, employers had so far claimed incentive payments for 34,810 apprentices. Employers can claim £2000 for apprentices hired as new employees from 1 August 2020 to 31 March 2021 aged 24 and under, and £1500 for those 25 and over.

We continue to carefully monitor the take-up of incentive payments by employers to ensure we continue to meet their needs as we build back better from the COVID-19 outbreak.

Additional analysis of apprenticeship incentive payments claimed to date is published here: https://explore-education-statistics.service.gov.uk/find-statistics/apprenticeships-and-traineeships.