Question to the Department for Work and Pensions:

To ask His Majesty's Government what plans they have to enable the independent advice sector to benefit from ongoing reforms to apprenticeships, skills and employment policy.

Getting more young people into work is a priority of this Government. As such, we are transforming the apprenticeships levy into a new Growth and Skills Levy in England to improve access to opportunities. The new levy will give employers greater flexibility, including those in the independent advice sector, and will support the delivery of the Industrial Strategy.

We are investing in young people’s futures and reversing the sharp decline in apprenticeship starts amongst young people, which have fallen by 40% over the last decade, emphasised by our ambition to support 50,000 more young people into apprenticeships.

There are several apprenticeship standards available that employers in the independent advice sector can take advantage of, including the Level 3 Learning and Development Practitioner and Level 4 Employability Practitioner standards.

Eligible employers within the independent advice sector will be able to benefit from the new £2,000 apprenticeship hiring grant for non-levy paying employers, typically SMEs, that take on 16–24-year-old apprentices as new employees. It will apply to apprenticeship starts from October as long as they have joined their employer within the past 3 months i.e. from July 2026. This is in addition to fully funding apprenticeship training for non-levy paying employers for all eligible 16–24-year-olds from the start of the next academic year.

Employers in the sector will also be able to benefit from the Youth Guarantee, which will offer fully funded training, financial incentives and a pipeline of young talent to help fill skills gaps and build their workforce.

In addition, the Adult Skills Fund which is worth around £1.4bn this year, funds education and skills training up to and including Level 3, for eligible adults aged 19+ which can include learning to support individuals to work in the independent advice sector. Skills Bootcamps also support reskilling and upskilling in a range of priority skills areas that could help learners and employers in the independent advice sector.