The Government has announced a £725m package of reforms to the apprenticeship system, including £140m for a Mayoral pilot programme.

As part of the measures the Government has made changes to levies, provided support targeted at SMEs and reduced the length of courses. Some of the changes include:

• £140m for a pilot where Mayors will be able to connect young people with job opportunities
• Covering the full cost of apprenticeships for eligible young people under 25s working for SMEs
• Removing the 5% co-investment rate for SMEs
• Engineering and digital skills being rolled out from April 2026
• Short courses will be introduced to provide more flexible training options from April 2026

Rico Wojtulewicz, Head of Policy and Market Insight for the NFB, said: “The consistent support for apprenticeships is fantastic because too often a change of government means a change of education policy. Historically, this has really hurt construction because apprenticeships are the key entry point for most workers.

“Going forward, we must consider why employers do not or cannot train and ultimately retain apprentices, as particularly in construction, SMEs train 8 in 10 of them. In the NFB’s housebuilder survey, 43% of respondents said they had reduced directly employed labour due to planning uncertainty or delay and 57% said that ‘no pipeline of work’ and ‘lack of planning certainty’ stopped them from taking on more apprentices.”