Commenting on the Local Government Association figures, which show there have been 131,500 fewer apprenticeships started since the launch of the government’s Apprenticeship Levy,  Liberal Democrat Leader Vince Cable said:

“The apprenticeship levy was designed to reward companies who train apprentices and penalise those who do not. Because of extreme mismanagement and design faults the scheme is patently not working to achieve its original objectives and is causing massive frustration amongst companies and depriving young people of opportunities.

“These figures show the levy is destroying the work done by the Liberal Democrats and needs to be redesigned”

Notes:

The Liberal Democrats would transform this apprenticeship policy into a more flexible training and skills levy, so that companies could use it to fund a wider range of training needs. To ensure funding reaches those it would help most, we would reserve a proportion of levy funding for the small businesses and self-employed freelancers that are currently being neglected.