Issues›Skills & Apprenticeships›Policy File

UK POLICY FILE

Skills & Apprenticeships

Monitoring apprenticeship and skills funding reform.

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POLICY PICTURE

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Medium risk
TypePolicy
ReferenceNot set
Lead bodyNot set
OwnerNot assigned
Next eventNo date
MovementStable
NEXT MOVEAsk HR and Operations for workforce priorities, apprenticeship activity and levy-use constraints against the reform themes.
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ALEX'S VIEW

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LIVE POLICY TIMELINE

What changed, and when

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Development · Confirmed

Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab): Education and Skills Reform

The noble Lord knows as well as any of us that you cannot necessarily believe everything that you read in the newspapers. As I suggested to the noble Lord, Lord Mohammed, there may well be further changes to the growth and skills levy, but we have been clear that we want to pivot it to young people to put right the 40% fall in them starting apprenticeships that we saw in the last 10 years. We also understand the role of apprenticeships, and of skills training more widely, in supporting people who are currently in w…

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Development · Emerging

Lord Johnson of Marylebone (Con): Education and Skills Reform

My Lords, I draw attention to my interest with respect to Access Creative College. Only last month, the Government implemented substantial reforms to the apprenticeship levy by transforming it into the growth and skills levy, increasing the amount that employers must contribute to adult apprenticeships and reducing the amount of time they have to use their levy funds. We read in the FT recently, though, that the Government’s own reviewer is minded to recommend the abolition of the apprenticeship levy. Are the Gover…

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Development · Confirmed

Baroness Smith of Malvern (Lab): Education and Skills Reform

Obviously, we are still working on the details of that but no, it does not extend to the growth and skills levy provision for apprenticeships for 16 to 18 year-olds. It will cover the 16 to 19 budget as it applies, for example, to post-16 qualifications, including classroom provision in colleges.

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Development · Confirmed

Lord Mohammed of Tinsley (LD): Education and Skills Reform

My Lords, I am grateful for this debate on education and skills policy because ultimately it comes down to one question: are we giving every young person the opportunity to build a good-quality life regardless of where they come from? There is much in our education system of which we should be proud. As we heard earlier, the latest PISA results show that the United Kingdom remains one of the highest-performing education systems in the world, particularly around science, mathematics and reading. Our performance in s…

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Development · Confirmed

The Minister of State, Department for Education and Department for Work and Pensions (Baroness Smith of Malvern): Education and Skills Reform

My Lords, I thank noble Lords for their questions. I will turn to the specific points that have been raised in a moment, but, before I do, it is worth briefly reiterating the context of the Secretary of State’s Statement last week. At its heart was a simple proposition: every young person should be able to see a clear pathway from education into further learning, skilled work and adult life. Our education system has many strengths. The latest PISA results confirmed England’s strong performance in reading, mathemati…

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Development · Confirmed

Work-based immigration

Committee work type: Inquiry. Committee work type: Inquiry.

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Development · Reported

The Guardian: Revealed: the UK towns with the fewest jobs for young people

Revealed: the UK towns with the fewest jobs for young people The Guardian

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Development · Confirmed

Lord Mohammed of Tinsley (LD): Speciality Steel UK

My Lords, I welcome the Minister to his position; I look forward to quizzing him as someone from Sheffield and from a steel-making heritage. I will miss my interactions with his noble friend Lord Leong; I really enjoyed them and wish him well. I will make two points. First, we need a frictionless relationship with the EU, so whatever barriers and bureaucracy the Minister can take away in the reset with the European Union will be welcomed by these Benches. Secondly, I will pick up on the point that my noble friend L…

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Development · Confirmed

Derek Twigg (Widnes and Halewood) (Lab): Apprenticeships

Further education colleges play a crucial role in apprenticeships and in supporting education. Will the Minister tell me what extra measures the Government are bringing in to ensure that further education colleges naturally provide a wide range of education and technical skills to apprentices?

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Development · Confirmed

Sir John Hayes (South Holland and The Deepings) (Con): Apprenticeships

You will recall, Mr Speaker—as will the Minister, from his earlier life—that when I was the Skills Minister, we had the biggest number of apprenticeships in modern history. I did that because I believe in elevating the practical, but, too often, careers advice and guidance delivered in schools drives people down an academic route to study degrees that have neither academic rigour nor economic value. Will the Minister look again at the advice and guidance given to people, so that aptitudes, talents and taste can be…

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Development · Confirmed

Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD): Young People not in Education, Employment or Training

May I send my condolences and those of everyone on the Liberal Democrat Benches to the Prime Minister on the death of his father? Alan Milburn is clear that exposure to the workplace for teenagers is critical in helping them to secure employment when they leave education, yet we know that less than a third of year 13 students have completed work experience. The Government have said they are committed to more work placements, which is welcome. Instead of overhauling the school system, will the Secretary of State ins…

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Development · Confirmed

The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government (Sally Jameson): Regional Devolution: Funding

We will be giving mayors greater flexibility to deploy funding within integrated settlements, and mayors will also retain a share of business rates in place of Government grants from April 2027. We will replace further grants from central Government with a share of local income tax from 2028.

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Development · Confirmed

Baroness McGregor-Smith (Non-Afl): Preparing for an Ageing Society (Economic Affairs Committee Report)

My Lords, I congratulate the Economic Affairs Committee on its excellent report. One passage particularly struck me: paragraph 40, where, in discussing the implications of an ageing society, Richard Hughes of the OBR highlighted the pressures that demographic change will place on the public finances. Those pressures are real, and they cannot be ignored. Yet I am concerned when older people are viewed principally through the lens of cost and dependency. Too often, the debate focuses on what older people will require…

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Development · Confirmed

The Minister of State, Department for Education and Department for Work and Pensions (Baroness Smith of Malvern) (Lab): Social Mobility: Local Roots, Lasting Change (Social Mobility Policy Committee Report)

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Manningham-Buller, for both her leadership of the committee and securing this debate. I thank the committee for the careful and constructive way in which it considered the issues about which we have talked today and which are reflected so well in the report. There is no excuse for the time taken by the Government to respond; I am sorry for that. The inquiry goes to the heart of a question that should concern every part of government and this House: how can we ensure that b…

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Development · Confirmed

Lord Evans of Rainow (Con): Social Mobility: Local Roots, Lasting Change (Social Mobility Policy Committee Report)

My Lords, I pay tribute to our formidable chair, the noble Baroness, Lady Manningham-Buller, for keeping us all on track. I welcome the Government’s response to the Social Mobility Policy Committee’s report on social mobility and NEETs, and it is encouraging to see progress on earlier identification, better data sharing, the youth guarantee, stronger local partnerships and the development of the “risk of NEET” indicator. The central point I want to make is that NEETs are not simply an education or employment proble…

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Development · Confirmed

Baroness Alexander of Cleveden (Lab): Skills, Vocational Training, and Further and Higher Education

My Lords, I also thank my noble friend Lady Morgan. When I arrived in your Lordships’ House 18 months ago, I had just become the chair of the body that certifies every electrician—there are 170,000 of them across the country. I immediately encountered deep concern among employers about the fate of apprenticeships—the bureaucracy, the cost of training and the support needs of the young apprentices. This malaise deeply pained employers who had invariably come up the apprenticeship route themselves. Many noble Lords h…

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Development · Confirmed

Anna Gelderd (South East Cornwall) (Lab): Global Tin Availability

Meur ras, Mrs Barker; it is a pleasure to serve under your chairship. I thank my Cornish colleague, my hon. Friend the Member for Camborne and Redruth (Perran Moon), for securing this important debate. As my hon. Friends from Cornwall know and speak about so powerfully, Cornwall has a proud mining heritage and was a key part of Britain’s first industrial revolution. We now have an opportunity to revitalise that in a way that serves our future aspirations. It is fantastic that this Labour Government have recognised…

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Development · Confirmed

Revenue and Customs Brief 9 (2026): VAT liability of supplies of education by alternative providers of higher and further education

This brief updates HMRC’s position on the VAT treatment of supplies of education from alternative providers.

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Development · Confirmed

PM statement to the House of Commons: 1 September 2026

Prime Minister Andy Burnham's statement to the House of Commons.

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Development · Confirmed

Local delivery of employment support

Committee work type: Inquiry. Committee work type: Inquiry.

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Development · Reported

The Times: Just one entry-level job for every three young people

Just one entry-level job for every three young people The Times

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Development · Reported

Lancashire Telegraph: Number of young people not in education, employment or training falls

Number of young people not in education, employment or training falls Lancashire Telegraph

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Development · Emerging

FE News: Looking Outward: What England Can Learn from Global Careers and Skills Systems

Looking Outward: What England Can Learn from Global Careers and Skills Systems FE News

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Development · Confirmed

British weapons jobs rise by more than 50% in a year as defence investment strengthens UK industry

UK weapons and ammunition manufacturing jobs rose 51% in 2024/25, part of a wider 26,000 increase in defence-supported roles nationwide.

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Development · Confirmed

Adult skills fund: devolved grant determination letters 2026

Letters to devolved areas outlining adult skills fund (ASF) and free courses for jobs funding for the 2026 to 2027 financial year.

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