The Telegraph carried a recent article about the lack of modern apprentices and skilled labour in the U.K.
The apprenticeship levy is exacerbating the construction industry's skills' shortage and needs urgent reform, according to the Federation of Master Builders. The number of people starting apprenticeships in the building sector fell to just 950 last year as small firms can not understand and work through the complex system.
Make U.K. a trade association for manufacturing said that "many parts of the apprenticeship system need fixing".
Levy paying companies are still finding difficulties in spending their funds. Smaller companies have been unable to access the training provisions they need.
225,000 people started apprenticeships in the first 6 months of the 2018/19 academic year. However for the latest period which covers August 2018 to January 2019 figures are a fifth down on people who started vocational training two years ago, before the apprenticeship levy began.
The levy was introduced in April 2017. It requires all employers with a wage bill of £3m or more to contribute into it at 0.5 per cent.
About 20,000 companies pay into the levy. Critics say it is too complex to navigate and too inflexible. Some call it a stealth tax.
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