Skills Shake-Up: Apprenticeships Move to DWP
17.09.2025
The Government has confirmed that apprenticeships, adult further education, skills, training and careers, and Skills England, will now sit under the remit of the Department for Work and Pensions, rather than the Department for Education as previously.
Instead, responsibility for higher education, and further education, skills, training and careers for those aged 19 years and under will remain with the Department for Education.
With Baroness Jacqui Smith, the Minister for Skills, to serve jointly across the Department for Work and Pensions and the Department for Education. These changes are effective immediately.
Read our comment below.
As the Government rightly focuses on reducing economic inactivity and offering high-quality work and training opportunities to young people, it is positive that apprenticeships and adult skills will become a more integral part of this effort as part of the Department for Work and Pensions. The Youth Guarantee and wider Get Britain Working agenda have the potential to give much greater support to manufacturers who are recruiting and training for critical jobs – more joined-up working across government on skills will help to deliver this.
"However, the fundamental challenges facing our skills system run deeper than simply moving responsibilities around departments. Reversing the 41% decline in engineering and manufacturing apprenticeships over the last eight years relies on the Government ensuring that employers are able to invest in the training they need. This starts with the Government following through on its commitment to reviewing funding levels for key apprenticeships, and ringfencing the money raised from the Apprenticeship Levy and Immigration Skills Charge for this purpose.
"The Industrial Strategy promised meaningful changes to the skills system, including more generous support for critical engineering skills. We look forward to continuing to work with the Minister in her new role and both DWP and the Department for Education to deliver these changes for manufacturers.
