No New Modern Apprenticeships For The Foreseeable Future As Funding From Scottish Government Delayed

7th April 2023

No new Modern Apprenticeship places are available in Scotland for the foreseeable future due to a delay in Scottish Government budget setting.

Thousands of young people who had expected to commence a Modern Apprenticeship in April have been left disappointed, frustrated, and uncertain about their future.

Employers are being forced to put their recruitment plans on hold - and training providers are being faced with laying off staff due to a shortage of work.

In April each year, Skills Development Scotland (SDS), contracts with employers and training providers to deliver new Modern Apprenticeships; last year the number was 25,000 new places. But this year, Scottish Government has not agreed a budget or number of new Modern Apprenticeships with SDS, so no new places are currently available.

It is unclear how long this situation will last, but many training providers are concerned it could be June or July before any contracts are issued. Without the contracts in place, no new Modern Apprenticeships can be offered.

STF is calling on the Scottish Government to lift the freeze on new Modern Apprenticeship places by agreeing a budget with SDS as a matter of urgency.

It is also urging the Scottish Government to make available 27,000 new Modern Apprenticeship places this year to meet high employer demand.

STF Chief Executive, Stuart McKenna, said: "This is a very poor situation: nobody in Scotland can start a new Modern Apprenticeship for the foreseeable future because the budget hasn't been signed off. It's leaving young people, employers, and training providers in limbo. We need the budget to be agreed as a matter of urgency".

"Demand for Modern Apprenticeships has never been higher. We need a commitment from Scottish Government for 27,000 new places this year to meet this demand."

"The current situation is bad news for STF members. Most are small businesses working to tight margins. Contract delays such as this cause significant cash flow problems and will result in some having to lay off staff."
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Skills Development Scotland (SDS) has published Quarter 3 statistics for Modern Apprenticeships.

Modern Apprenticeship Starts

There were 19,957 Modern Apprenticeship starts at the end of Q3.

Modern Apprenticeship starts continued to increase this quarter. Start figures rose by 7.1% (+1,328) relative to the same point last year and starts this quarter were 94.0% of what they were in Q3 2019/20, pre-pandemic.

Starts by age

This quarter, the majority (59.8% or 11,944) of MA starts were aged 16-24, while 40.2% were aged 25+. The proportion of 16-24 year olds was 1.2 pp higher than the same point last year (58.6%).

Starts by gender

36 .8% of starts8 this quarter were female, 0.4 pp lower than the same point last year and 1.9 pp lower than the pre-pandemic level. The widening of the gender gap may be partly explained by the increase in starts to the largest occupational grouping, Construction & Related, where this quarter only 2.7% (147 of 5,347) of starts were female.