Source · Select Committees · Transport Committee
Recommendation 4
4
Accepted
Increase flexibility for apprenticeship levy funds to benefit SMEs and UK-wide transport manufacturers.
Recommendation
Substantial amounts of levy funding has expired unspent. Rather than further constraining the opportunities for spending such funding, the Government should increase flexibility. We welcome the Government’s Budget 2025 commitment to fully fund apprenticeships for eligible people under 25 at small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). However, more should be done to better ensure that levy funds reach SMEs and supply chain manufacturers in the transport manufacturing sector. The current restriction that levy funding can only be directly spent by manufacturers who operate across the UK on their operations in England is throttling opportunities for transport manufacturers which operate UK-wide to directly invest that funding in skills across their wider workforce. (Conclusion, Paragraph 34)
Government response summary AI-generated
The government will work with industry to ensure that Occupational Standards are updated as needed to reflect changing industry needs, and Skills England’s new accelerated approach will mean updates to apprenticeships or development of new short courses can be completed in as little as three months.
Government Response
The government responded to this report on 5 May 2026. No passage in that response could be matched to this recommendation. Read the response document ↗