Skills England launch paves way for re-shaping Apprenticeship Levy

The launch of Skills England earlier this week followed the announcement of the Skills England Bill in the King’s Speech on 17 July. Skills England will have an important part to play in the roll out of the “Growth and Skills Levy”, the planned successor to the much-criticised Apprenticeship Levy.

The Bill will enable the transfer of functions from the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education to Skills England. This new body will work with employers, unions, education and training providers and Mayoral Combined Authorities to identify skills gaps at a national and local level and to specify the training on which the Growth and Skills Levy can be spent. The plan is for levy-paying employers to have the flexibility to spend up to half of the money available to them from the reformed levy to train existing staff in "high-level technical skills”.

These developments need to be seen alongside Labour’s wide-ranging proposals to “make work pay” by changing employment and trade union law (see our earlier blogs here, here and here). Plans to re-shape the oversight of apprenticeships in England and to reform the levy have attracted much less publicity, but the Government hopes these changes will play an equally important role in its drive to promote “good work” as a key contributor to economic growth.