The government has announced a new Growth and Skills Levy which will replace the existing Apprenticeship Levy and include new foundation apprenticeships.

The new levy will also allow funding for shorter apprenticeships, giving learners and employers greater flexibility over their training than under the existing system – where apprenticeships must run for at least 12 months.

The training eligible for funding under the new levy will develop over time, informed by Skills England’s assessment of priority skills needs.

The Department for Education will set out further details on the scope of the offer and how it will be accessed in due course.

To fund this, employers are being asked to rebalance their funding for apprenticeships, asking them to invest in younger workers. This will also involve businesses funding more of their level 7 apprenticeships – equivalent to a master’s degree and often accessed by older or already well qualified employees – outside of the levy.

Responding, RHA MD Richard Smith said: ”We’ve long campaigned for reform of the Apprenticeship Levy which has disadvantaged firms in our industry applying for funding. As we laid out in our recently published blueprint document, we want employers to be able to use available funds for the courses and training that best works for them. For that reason, we welcome the skills reform agenda.

”We hope that the new growth and skills levy will unlock career opportunities and pathways for future opportunities in road transport and logistics. The government has pledged that this will be possible through Skills England – with a proposed renewed focus on quality technical education.

”We want businesses to have much more choice available, with training tailored to suit their specific needs and requirements. Given the shortages that our sector is still experiencing in certain areas and will potentially face in the future, we want to see this more accessible system in place as soon as practically possible. One way of doing this would be making the successful HGV skills bootcamps a permanently funded option. This would help to ensure the resilience of the future HGV driving workforce. Given the success to date of these bootcamps, we recommend that bus and coach licence acquisition be added and for the bootcamp to become a ‘heavy vehicle driver bootcamp’, rather than an HGV driver one.”

Meanwhile a report from Skills England, which was launched in July, has found that employer investment in training has been in steady decline over the past decade, with training expenditure at its lowest level since records began in 2011, with investment per employee down by 19% in real terms. This highlights the need for reforms to the skills and apprenticeships system, the government said.

Commenting on the report, RHA skills policy lead Sally Gilson said: “We welcome the Skills England report on Delivering Growth and Widening Opportunities. The report identifies some key problems in the system frequently raised by our members, that it has become fragmented, too complex and unresponsive.

“Apprenticeship levy reform and greater flexibility within the courses the levy can fund have been key RHA asks and we’re pleased to see that this commitment is a core part of the government’s plans. As Skills England works across departments and with industry to identify skills shortages and their causes, we look forward to inputting into the review.”

 

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