The Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) has warned that the skills sector is under immense threat due to a perfect storm of rising costs, reduced Adult Education Budget (AEB) funding, the end of the traineeship programme and an apprenticeship system where funding bands have experienced real term cuts since their introduction in 2017.
AELP is calling for immediate action from the government to save the skills system or risk a situation where learners will see a drastically reduced choice in where and what they’re able to learn.
Following news that another major training provider is under threat of insolvency, AELP has said this should be seen as a wake-up call for government and that support is needed urgently to avoid major impact on learners, employers and providers themselves. This follows numerous examples of providers withdrawing from the apprenticeship market and existing training providers having to slash the range of programmes they offer as they no longer become affordable to deliver, leading to widespread redundancies.
