Today the Edge Foundation launch it’s latest report Flex Without Compromise. It considers whether and how a flexible apprenticeship and skills levy might be designed, including levers external to the levy, to minimise the impact on the apprenticeship offer in England.
In the report Edge highlight our concerns that, unless the policy is carefully designed, this move could squeeze funding for apprenticeship opportunities – and the worrying decline of young people participating in apprenticeships, especially at entry levels, will continue.
The Growth and Skills Levy could risk compromising achievement of other Government policies and missions: the Youth Guarantee (key to the Opportunity Mission) and the Growth Mission (as it’s SMEs and industries integral to growth that are most likely to lose out).
Instead, we set out the levers left to pull in the apprenticeship system that would make a substantial difference to employers’ ability to use their levy and create more, entry-level opportunities for young people, before jumping to – or at least, in tandem with – flex of the levy. We must not forget that the apprenticeship system is there to serve young people as well as employers.
Moving forward with the Growth and Skills Levy, there are valuable lessons to learn from the design and implementation of the Apprenticeship Levy – including the need for clearly articulated purpose and clarity around the ‘Treasury margin’. We also present a series of options available to the Government and Skills England in thinking about the proportions of the levy that can be spent on non-apprenticeship skills training and the scope of the training that should qualify for funding under the levy, that could help mitigate potential, unintended consequences of reform that would hinder, not promote, greater, high-quality vocational opportunities for young people.
Alongside the careful development of the policy, if not before, these wider changes must be explored by the Government, in collaboration with employers and young people, so as to make the transition to the Growth and Skills Levy as smooth as possible, without compromise to the apprenticeship offer. With all these considerations in mind, we can start to design a new system.
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