A group representing 11,000 employers in manufacturing has written to the education secretary demanding reforms to the apprenticeship funding system.
Rachel Eade, chair of the UK Metals Council, claims that companies are being “hamstrung” by the way apprenticeship funding works, and this is adding to the UK’s skills crisis. The group represents 12 industrial trade bodies in the metals sector.
In the letter to Gillian Keegan, she says: “We’re in a preposterous situation where employer funds are not being used for the intended purpose of upskilling staff.”
“The levy should be an effective way of leveraging funds for the use of industry as a whole. Problems start when the money at the top of the tree does not trickle down or the funds are too difficult to access for manufacturers already struggling for time.”
It argues that there is too much bureaucracy involved in securing apprenticeship funding and that the frameworks are broadened to include more engineering and manufacturing disciplines.
Apprenticeship funding
The metals industry is not the first to call for reforms to the current apprenticeship system, which was overhauled in 2017 with the introduction of the apprenticeship levy on employers with more than £350 million in turnover.
Last year the CBI called for greater flexibility in the apprenticeship levy in a bid to improve skills in the retail and wholesale sector, and the British Retail Consortium has described it as “not fit for purpose”.
And in February, research by City & Guilds and The 5% Club revealed that only 4% of levy-paying employers have used their full apprenticeship funding in the past five years.
The CIPD has also long called for the funding to be broadened to become a training levy, with research showing that many organisations are using it to fund courses for existing employees or train managers, rather than supporting people in newly created roles.
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According to government statistics, total apprenticeship starts in the 2021/22 academic year were 349,200, down from almost 500,000 in 2014.
