Recommendation 40

HM Government Accepted in Part

The Government is committed to supporting employers in sectors with short-term, project based work to benefit from the high-quality training that apprenticeships offer. We awarded £5 million of grant funding to support the creation of new Flexi-Job Apprenticeship Agencies which are available across a range of sectors, including creative, construction, digital and engineering. As the pilot period comes to a close this Autumn, we will evaluate the progress that has been made and explore how best to support more employers and apprentices in these sectors. As with all apprenticeships, levels of starts are determined by the recruitment and skills development choices that employers make. In the meantime, we continue to take steps to support more employers and apprentices to benefit from flexi-job apprenticeships. We are working with Flexi-Job Apprenticeship Agencies to develop a comprehensive ‘Guide to Flexi-Job Apprenticeships’ to promote the benefits to potential host employers and apprentices. We also recently invited applications for new organisations to join the Register of Flexi-Job Apprenticeship Agencies. Successful applicants will join the Register at the beginning of October, supporting more employers and individuals to benefit from high-quality apprenticeships. In addition, we are piloting Portable Flexi-Job Apprenticeships. These put apprentices in the driving seat by allowing them to move between shorter-term (minimum 3-month) employment contracts made directly with different employers, and with pauses between placements where appropriate. There are now 37 standards available as part of the pilot across the creative, digital, construction and healthcare sectors, with 16 providers currently involved. A key success measure of flexi-job apprenticeships is the proportion of apprentices who successfully achieve their apprenticeship. We want to ensure that more apprentices complete their programmes and have a high-quality experience, and in support of this aim we recognise the need to ensure that apprentices are properly supported by their employer and training provider, and that they receive fair pay and conditions. Apprenticeship Pay We will continue to work closely with stakeholders to ensure fair pay and just terms and conditions for apprentices. We increased the apprentice minimum wage by 9.7% in April. Many employers choose to pay their apprentices more than the national minimum wage rates, recognising the value that apprentices bring to their workplaces. Our data shows that average hourly pay for apprentices’ ranges between £8.23 for level 2 apprentices and £14.02 for those at level 6. We also recently launched our new Apprentice Support Centre, bringing together essential information and resources in one place to help apprentices get the support they need.