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.

We are committed to supporting apprentices to safely continue with, and complete, their programmes during the COVID-19 outbreak. Provisional figures show that from August 2020 to January 2021, 59,400 apprentices achieved their apprenticeship (frameworks and standards).

We do not hold data on the number of apprentices who have been unable to complete their programme due to the impact of COVID-19. Our data collection system does not capture COVID-19 as a reason for a break in learning or withdrawal, and in many cases there will be a range of reasons for apprentices not completing their apprenticeship.

Since 8 March 2021, all apprentices have been able to return to on-site training and assessment.

In recognition of the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak, we introduced a number of flexibilities in March 2020 to ensure that apprenticeships could continue where possible. This included flexibilities to off-the-job training to support remote learning, supporting remote assessment where practicable, and making it possible for furloughed apprentices to continue their apprenticeships and undertake end-point assessments. All assessment flexibilities and discretions put in place due to COVID-19 are extended until at least 31 August 2021. For apprentices who have experienced disruption to their training due to COVID-19 employers can extend the planned duration of the apprenticeship to accommodate this.

We are also supporting apprentices who have been made redundant through our Redundancy Support Service for Apprentices, which includes a vacancy sharing scheme to help redundant apprentices find new apprenticeship opportunities with employers. In addition, we have amended legislation to enable more apprentices to complete their apprenticeship in the event of redundancy.

We continue to work closely with the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, Ofqual and other organisations to mitigate the disruption to assessment, training and employment as a result of COVID-19.

Apprenticeships benefit people of all ages and backgrounds, and we want to ensure that more people from underrepresented backgrounds can undertake them, particularly those that offer higher wage returns and progression opportunities.

We are working with some of the country’s most influential employers through our Apprenticeship Diversity Champions Network, which consists of over 85 employers, to promote best practice in recruiting and supporting apprentices from diverse backgrounds. We are building on this work to ensure that we continue to see an improved representation of people from ethnic minority backgrounds starting apprenticeships, especially in sectors that carry historic under-representation. The Network will report during National Apprenticeship Week 2022 on how to better reach out to target communities and improve on-programme retention.

To increase the outreach of information of apprenticeships to students of all backgrounds, we are promoting apprenticeships in schools through our Apprenticeship Support and Knowledge programme. This free service provides schools and teachers with resources and interventions to help better educate young people about apprenticeships.

The department is co-funding, along with the Home Office, a series of activity delivered by the Stephen Lawrence Day Foundation. This work includes supporting young people, particularly those from ethnic minority backgrounds, into level 3 advanced technical digital apprenticeships using the Foundation’s extensive network of contacts and partners. The Careers and Enterprise Company supports schools and colleges to connect with employers so that young people have opportunities to explore all available options. These interactions aim to increase their knowledge of a range of career possibilities and training options, including apprenticeships. We committed in our Skills for Jobs white paper to improve the careers information available to young people and adults by updating the National Careers Service website to bring together all information on learning and careers routes available, such as apprenticeships. We will introduce interactive careers maps, which will show the occupations and careers options that technical or higher technical options can open the door to.

The Baker Clause requires all maintained schools and academies to publish a policy statement setting out opportunities for providers of technical education – including taught courses and apprenticeships – to visit schools to talk to all year 8 to 13 pupils, and to make sure the statement is followed. In the Skills for Jobs white paper, we committed to introduce a 3-point-plan to enforce the Baker Clause. We will consult shortly on proposals to strengthen the legislation. Subject to the outcome of the consultation, we plan to introduce these changes alongside tougher formal action against non-compliance and making government-funded careers support for schools conditional on Baker Clause compliance.

We know that traineeships have significant positive outcomes for young people. 66% of trainees progressed into work, an apprenticeship or further learning in 2018/19 academic year, the year after they completed their traineeship.

We are supporting the largest ever expansion of traineeships, providing funding for an additional 30,000 places in 2020/21 academic year, to ensure that more young people have access to high-quality training. We have extended the £1,000 incentive payments for employers who offer traineeship work placement opportunities to July 2022. We are also providing an additional £126 million to create a further 43,000 places in 2021/22 academic year.

In response to the COVID-19 outbreak we have also introduced flexibilities to enable traineeships to support more young people into work wherever possible. These include extending the maximum duration from 6 to 12 months and extending the programme eligibility to include young people with level 3 qualifications who require support to access an apprenticeship or other employment.

We are working with employers to develop new traineeships which will provide young people with a tailored springboard into their chosen industries. From May 2021 we will start to deliver the first ever traineeships developed alongside trade bodies and employers specifically for construction and rail, with further sectors to follow in the summer. These traineeships will be aligned to apprenticeship standards and will significantly increase the opportunities for young people to progress into apprenticeships or other employment.

To help improve traineeship quality and share best practice, we run provider webinars through the Association of Colleges and the Association of Employment and Learning Providers. We have introduced one-to-one meetings with providers to discuss their programmes and achievements with them.

We want to ensure that more people from disadvantaged backgrounds can undertake apprenticeships, particularly those that offer higher wage returns and progression opportunities, and we continue to look at how the programme is supporting those from deprived areas.

Employers decide which apprenticeships they offer and when in order to address their skills needs. High-quality apprenticeships at levels 2 and 3 remain an important part of our programme, supporting people from all backgrounds to gain the skills they need to begin or progress in their career. In the first half of 2020/21 academic year, there were 110,500 apprenticeship starts at levels 2 and 3 - over two-thirds of all starts in this period.

We are supporting more people from disadvantaged and under-represented backgrounds to access apprenticeships through our Apprenticeship Diversity Champions Network of over 85 employers. The Network promotes best practice in recruiting and supporting apprentices from diverse backgrounds. In addition, our Apprenticeships Support and Knowledge programme supports schools across England to provide students from diverse backgrounds with information on apprenticeships.

Smaller employers play an important role in providing apprenticeship opportunities across the country, particularly for young people and those in deprived areas. To support more smaller employers to offer apprenticeships all SMEs can now reserve funding for up to 10 new apprenticeship starts in 2021-22 financial year. Employers of all sizes can also benefit from the increased incentive payment of £3000 for taking on an apprentice as a new employee.

Through our Plan for Jobs, we are also providing a range of support to help young people from disadvantaged backgrounds access high-quality training to develop the skills, experience, and confidence to obtain an apprenticeship. We are supporting the largest-ever expansion of traineeships, providing funding for an additional 30,000 places in 2020/21 academic year, and we are working with the Department for Work and Pensions to enable Kickstart placements to turn into apprenticeships where that is the right thing for the employer and the young person. We have made a special provision to allow employers taking on Kickstarters as apprentices to be eligible for the incentive payment, supporting a pathway between the schemes.