Plan for Jobs & Expansion of Post-18 education and training

Extra funding and flexibilities for apprenticeships, traineeships, level 2 and 3 qualifications for 18-19-year-olds for an extra year in learning, a new Kickstart scheme, an all adult level 3 entitlement, a lifelong learning loan entitlement, and the expansion of digital bootcamps.

On 8 July the Treasury announced the second phase of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic with a targeted Plan for Jobs. In a further announcement on the 29 September Boris Johnson outlined an expansion of post-18 education and training.

These initiatives include extra funding and flexibilities for:

Expansion of Post-18 education and training:

Lifetime Skills Guarantee

The Lifetime Skills Guarantee is one of the Government's latest initiatives announced by the Prime Minister in September 2020, aimed at boosting productivity and helping the country build back better from coronavirus.

All Adult Level 3 Entitlement

£95 million is being invested in the 2020-21 academic year, starting April 2021, to fund any adult aged 24 and over who wants to achieve their first level 3 qualification. Almost 400 funded courses are available. Courses will be available in a variety of lengths, to support adults to get the skills they need to boost their careers.

This is part of the Lifetime Skills Guarantee announced by the Prime Minister in September 2020, and funded under the National Skills Fund.

The courses on offer will deliver a wide range of skills in many jobs and sectors. All of the qualifications have been chosen to help adults improve their job prospects and meet the needs of the economy. Qualifications will be available in:

Engineering
Building and Construction
Manufacturing Technologies
Transportation Operations and Maintenance
Business Management
Public Services
Accounting and Finance
Medicine and Dentistry
Horticulture and Forestry
Health and Social Care
ICT Practitioners
ICT for Users
Mathematics and Statistics
Science
Agriculture
Nursing and vocations and subjects allied to Medicine
Child Development and Wellbeing
Environmental Conservation
Teaching and Lecturing
Warehousing and Distribution

80 Pearson qualifications, covering a range of the identified sectors, are eligible for this funding.

>See the full list of eligible qualifications from Pearson

Further information can be found on the ESFA's National Skills Fund page, and the full list of courses. Full funding guidance for providers on the new level 3 offer will be published in the new year.

Flexible Lifelong Loan Entitlement to four years of post-19 Education

A flexible lifelong loan entitlement will be introduced to allow all individuals to access four years of post-18 education. The aim is to also make credit transfer between FE and HE a more standardised and mainstream feature of the post-18 system, including making the new Higher Technical Qualifications easy to build upon. The ambition is to allow for a flexible loan which also supports individuals to build up and achieve meaningful HE qualifications. The government will consult and bring forward legislation to achieve this where necessary in this parliament.

As part of the Level 4 and 5 Review, the DfE are already exploring the expansion of funding so that loans for new Higher Technical Qualifications are on the same footing as university degrees, and Further Education colleges can access this loan funding on the same terms as universities.

This is part of the Lifetime Skills Guarantee announced by the Prime Minister in September 2020.

Digital Bootcamps

Digital boot camps provide short, employer-led, flexible training courses for adults.

Digital Bootcamps

£8 million has been committed to expand digital skills boot camps. Digital boot camps provide short, employer-led, flexible training courses for adults, linked to guaranteed interviews, and are tailored to meet business and economic demand across the country such as software or development and operations.

The first phase of the bootcamps are underway in West Midlands, Greater Manchester, Lancashire and Liverpool with digital courses such as cloud services, full stack, digital for advanced manufacturing and cyber security.

The second phase is to be trialled in West Yorkshire, the South West and Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire. and from 2021, boot camps will be extended to sectors like construction and engineering.

Plan for Jobs:

Apprenticeships

Employers will receive extra incentive payments for hiring new apprentices of all ages for six months. The incentive payments will be available between 1 August 2020 and 31 January 2021.

Two levels of employer incentive payments are available depending on the age of the apprentice: employers will receive £2,000 for taking on apprentices aged 16-24, and £1,500 for taking on apprentices aged 25+.
These payments will be in addition to the existing £1,000 payment the government already provides for new 16-18-year-old apprentices, and those aged under 25 with an Education, Health and Care Plan.
Apprentices must be new employees, have a contract of employment start date between 1 August 2020 and 31 January 2021, and must not have been employed by the employer within the six months prior to the contract start date.

Claims can start to be made by employer from 1 September 2020 and must be made through the apprenticeship service. The payment will be made in two equal instalments - when the apprentice is still in learning at day 90 and day 365. There will be no limit on the number of incentive payments that an employer can claim for eligible apprentices.

We expect further flexibilities to be announced for apprenticeships following the announcement on the 29 September and will update this page as soon as we know more. It is expected that:

More flexible delivery models will be supported, such as front-loaded training of apprentices and apprenticeships, taking place across a number of placements with employers in sectors like construction and creative industries where there are more varied employment patterns.
Levy funds will be further flexed up to allow for easier transfer of surplus levy funds to local employers and businesses in supply chains.

Pearson offers a range of Apprenticeship Standards along with learning resources to support on-programme delivery, end-point assessments, and the training and support services you need to offer apprenticeships that work.

The funding details can be found in the ESFA’s Apprenticeship funding in England Guidance.

Traineeships

An additional £111 million this year has been invested in traineeships which are available to 16-24-year-olds in England. Incentive payments for employers taking on trainees will be available for the first time, and the funding providers receive for older trainees will be increased. The eligibility criteria will also be changed so that more learners can access traineeships. The additional funding will be available from September, and procurement started for 19-24 traineeships in October 2020. The invesment is expected to triple participation in traineeships.

Employers will receive £1,000 for taking on any aged traineeships (for 16-24-year-olds). The funding is limited to 10 trainees per employer.
The single work-placement and work-preparation rate will increase from £970 to £1,500 for 19-24-year-olds starting a traineeship on or after 1 September 2020.
Traineeships will also now be available to 16-24-year -olds who already hold a level 3 qualification. Previously, only those qualified to level 2 were eligible for the programme.

For more information on how Pearson supports Traineeship Programmes, visit our dedicated Traineeship webpages.

The funding details can be found in the ESFA’s Traineeship information for training providers, and the Traineeship information for employers and more detailed guidance is expected shortly.

Level 2 and 3 'high value' qualifications

£101 million is being invested in the 2020-21 academic year to fully fund 18-19-year-olds who have not been able to find employment or work-based training opportunities, to study 'high value’ level 2 or level 3 courses for an additional year. The ESFA will administer the additional funding via 16 to 19 funding and Adult Education Budget funding to support delivery from 1 September 2020.

The qualifications available have been identified as relevant to higher wage returns and economic growth opportunities. The sector areas identified as high value are:

Building and Construction
Engineering
Health and Social Care
ICT Practitioners
Manufacturing Technologies
Mathematics and Statistics
Medicine and Dentistry
Nursing and subjects and vocations allied to Medicine
Science
Transportation operations and maintenance
The one-year offer includes a £400 uplift per learner to cover the costs of putting on additional courses, adjustments to retention payments and job outcome payments to compensate where learners leave early and take up employment or an apprenticeship, and an increased rate to fund 18-year-olds on larger programmes at the rate for 16 and 17-year-olds.
In devolved areas the DfE will transfer the additional AEB to Mayoral Combined Authorities (MCA) and the Greater London Authority (GLA).

60 Pearson qualifications, covering the full range of the identified sectors, are eligible for this funding. 18 are available at level 2 and 42 are available at level 3.

> See the full list of eligible qualifications from Pearson

The funding details can be found in the ESFA’s High value courses for school and college leavers: a one-year offer for 18 and 19-year-olds and more detailed guidance from the ESFA will be published by the end of July 2020.

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