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<p>In 2015, we set ourselves ambitious targets, but we will not sacrifice quality
to get there. We are aware that the number of people starting apprenticeships has
dropped, but we have moved away from the old frameworks and onto new, high quality
standards, improving the quality of apprenticeships.</p><p>The number of people starting
on these new standards is growing fast. Nearly 60% of people doing an apprenticeship
are now starting on standards (in the first 2 quarters of the 2018/19 academic year).
In this period, there were 128,100 starts on standards, compared to 71,600 at the
same time last year.</p><p>Employers will lead on the design of new standards, giving
apprentices the skills that businesses need. There are now over 420 apprenticeship
standards approved for delivery and this number continues to grow. We have made a
further £3.5 million available to support the Institute for Apprenticeships to introduce
new standards and update existing ones, meaning that there will be more choice for
employers and people considering their training options.</p><p>We are supporting employers
to make the long-term, sustainable investment in training which will generate more
apprenticeship starts. We have already extended the time levy-paying employers have
to spend their funds from 18 to 24 months, and we will increase the amount of funding
that levy-paying employers can transfer to other employers from 10% to 25%, from April
2019, to make the system more flexible. To ease the cost of apprenticeship training
for small employers, we are halving the co-investment rate from 10% to 5% for new
starts from April 2019.</p><p>Our new communication campaign, ‘Fire it Up’, is working
to grow the number of high-quality apprenticeships offered and started, by changing
the way people think about apprenticeships, demonstrating that they are an aspirational
choice.</p>
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