An update on apprenticeships

In the Spring Budget 2024, the government announced a major package of reforms to support small businesses with apprenticeships.

From improved funding to increased flexibility, the government’s changes to apprenticeships aim to lighten the load and drive growth. The summary of prosed changes was: 

• £60 million new investment given to enable up to 20,000 more apprenticeships in the UK, with a focus on supporting young people and small businesses.
• Unnecessary regulatory burdens are to be slashed through Brexit freedoms saving around £150 million per year for thousands of small businesses.
• A new taskforce is to be established to boost private investment in women-led businesses and make the UK more supportive of female founders.
• The HMRC is evaluating apprenticeship programs and, in particular, SME Apprenticeship Threshold as they look to increase it. The consultation is likely to take place later in 2024 and likely to explore increasing the employee size threshold from 250 up to 500.

With the new Labour government in place, whether or not these changes will take place is still to be confirmed. Stay tuned and subscribe to our newsletter for further updates.