A Clearer Front Door to Wales’s Apprenticeships
When the Senedd’s Economy, Trade and Rural Affairs Committee called evidence on apprenticeship pathways, the brief sounded deceptively simple: why are so few people choosing the vocational route—and what would it take to fix that?
Behind the question sat a knot of problems: complicated pathways, patchy provision, slumping starts, and a culture that still treats apprenticeships as a second choice. The inquiry’s report reads like a map of those bottlenecks—and a blueprint for unclogging them.
The Awareness Gap
It begins with awareness. Stakeholders told Members that, from 2019–23, only 2% of Year 11 school leavers moved directly into apprenticeships each year. Careers advice is uneven; teachers and parents often lack up-to-date knowledge, especially in fast-growing areas like green and digital.
Falling Starts, Shrinking Targets
The numbers since then are sobering:
- Apprenticeship starts fell by 12% year-on-year in Q1 2024/25.
- The Welsh Government scaled back its all-age starts target from 125,000 to 100,000 this Senedd term.
- Providers blame a 14% cut to 2024/25 contracts, meaning nearly 6,000 fewer starts.
Barriers on the Ground
Access is uneven. In rural Wales, provision thins out; buses are unreliable, broadband patchy. Pay is also a significant barrier—the apprentice minimum wage sits at £7.55/hour, compared with £12.21 for 21+ in non-training jobs.
Medr and the Push for Agility
Enter Medr, the new skills body. It plans to:
- Review all 23 apprenticeship frameworks in three years.
- Embed green and digital skills by default.
- Focus on progression between levels.
Degree Apprenticeships: High Demand, Tight Supply
At the top of the ladder, degree apprenticeships are oversubscribed. Currently limited to Digital, Engineering, Advanced Manufacturing, and Construction, they’re capped by a £10m ring-fenced budget. The Committee’s conclusion: expand degree apprenticeships or risk a steady talent outflow to England.
Where WeGetDesign Fits In
From our vantage point as an SME, WeGetDesign made three key arguments to the inquiry:
- Create a single front door. A UCAS-style admissions system for apprenticeships would give learners a clear entry point and employers predictable access to talent.
- Educate employers. Show SMEs the real ROI of apprenticeships with simple, evidence-based tools.
- Reintroduce grants. Targeted funding once made it easier for small firms to take a chance on new talent.
We also called for expanding degree-level apprenticeships by leveraging Welsh universities’ infrastructure, so high-skill learners can stay, study, and work in Wales.
Why This Matters for the Economy
Skills are Wales’s growth bottleneck. The report makes the case that fixing education requires:
- Short term: Arresting the fall in starts and tackling transport/pay barriers.
- Medium term: Hard-wiring agility via Medr’s framework review.
- Long term: Treating vocational routes as co-equal with academic ones.
Done right, the apprenticeship pathway becomes a growth pathway for learners, for employers, and for the Welsh economy as a whole.