A £3bn apprenticeship budget that includes new allocations for skills boot camps, technical excellence colleges specialising in construction skills and a refocus from master to lower-level apprenticeships was unveiled by the government today [27 May 2025].

In its announcement of “a radical skills revolution”, the government said 120,000 new training opportunities will be available to young people, “giving them the chance to develop skills where they are most needed across the workforce to rebuild Britain”.

“This includes an additional 30,000 apprenticeship starts across this Parliament,” the government said. “We are backing our young people and investing in skills as an engine of economic growth – putting more money in people’s back pockets and breaking down barriers to opportunity.”

To support the initiative, education secretary Bridget Phillipson said the government is: 

• implementing a 32% increase in the Immigration Skills Charge, which will deliver up to 45,000 additional training places to upskill the domestic workforce and reduce reliance on migration in priority sectors, as announced in the recent Immigration White Paper
• refocusing funding away from Level 7 (Masters-level) apprenticeships from January 2026, while maintaining support for those aged 16-21 and existing apprentices. This will enable levy funding to be rebalanced towards training at lower levels, where it can have the greatest impact
• launched 13 new Level 2 construction courses for adults in non-devolved areas under the Free Courses for Jobs scheme.

In addition to the £3bn apprenticeship budget, the new generation of workers is being backed through:

• £14m of adult skills funding for construction to be devolved to local mayors for next academic year, expected to support up to 5,000 additional adult learners
• £136m for Skills Bootcamps across a range of priority sectors in 2025-26, providing training to over 40,000 learners
• £100m over four years to expand Construction Skills Bootcamps
• 10 Technical Excellence Colleges specialising in construction skills, opening in September 2025.

Today’s announcement comes following a dramatic fall in the number of apprenticeship starts over the last decade, and as recent ONS statistics show as many as one in eight 16-24-year-olds are not in employment, education or training.

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