The apprenticeships minister should be a joint Department for Education and Treasury role to ensure the policy and financial side of the levy are aligned, a think tank’s director and former special adviser to education ministers has said.
Policy Exchange has also called for the requirement for apprentices to pass GCSE level equivalent maths and English to be abolished, for small and medium-sized employers to be funded for off-the-job training hours for apprentices under 25, and for a quarter of the levy to fund non-apprenticeship training.
Iain Mansfield, Policy Exchange’s head of education who is a former special adviser to three education ministers, published a report that warned the apprenticeship system is not delivering the number of apprenticeships the UK needs – with young people, those from disadvantaged backgrounds and SMEs being hit the hardest.
Endorsed by former education secretaries Nadhim Zahawi, Gavin Williamson and Lord Blunkett, as well as the DfE’s former director of apprenticeships Keith Smith, the report makes several “significant” proposals for reform.
