As FE Week’s tenth annual apprenticeship conference draws to a close, deputy editor Billy Camden quizzes skills minister Robert Halfon on some of the big issues facing apprenticeships.
Q. The gap between how much the levy generates versus how much is distributed for spending on apprenticeships by Treasury is in the hundreds of millions, and growing. Does this disparity frustrate you and are you lobbying Treasury to increase DfE’s budget?
Well, first of all, I’m very proud of the apprenticeship budget because I do think spending £2.7 billion a year from 2024-25 is a huge whack of money to spend on apprenticeships. Of course, I’ll always champion for more funding to go to apprenticeships. The budget has always been set by the Treasury, significant chunks go to the devolved authorities and that is right they spend it how they wish.
I also think it’s worth pointing out all the extra multimillion pound packages there are for things like the bootcamp and other adult learning courses. So I think if you look at it in the round, there’s a hefty amount of money being spent on skills and a hefty amount of money being spent on apprenticeships.
