Engineering apprenticeships grow despite Level 7 cuts

In Brief

Engineering degree apprenticeship provision among the UK’s top 100 universities has risen 12% over the past two years.

Of the engineering programmes available this autumn, UVAC says 75% will be at Level 6 and 25% at Level 7.

Some 69% of the universities studied will continue offering Level 7 apprenticeships despite changes that removed government funding for most new apprentices aged 22 and over from January 1, 2026.

While courses will remain available, UVAC estimates the funding change could add around £214 million to employer training costs.

In Review

Engineering degree apprenticeships are proving relatively resilient to changes in Government funding, with UVAC reporting a 12% increase in provision among the UK’s top 100 universities since 2024. It also found that 69% of the universities studied intend to retain Level 7 apprenticeship provision this September.

That does not mean the funding problem has gone away. Since January 1, 2026, Government funding for Level 7 apprenticeships in England has generally been restricted to apprentices aged 16 to 21, with extended eligibility for care leavers and people with an Education, Health and Care Plan who are under 25. Apprentices who started before the cut-off remain funded through to completion. That means for employers wanting to use Level 7 programmes to develop staff aged 22 and over, university availability and affordability are therefore now two different questions.

That matters because the workforce pressure is already showing up on live projects. The UK’s data centre boom is intensifying shortages of electrical and mechanical workers, with Turner & Townsend reporting shortages of qualified MEP workers across every UK market it surveyed. Degree apprenticeships can strengthen that pipeline, particularly where employers need people to combine academic engineering knowledge with workplace experience, but they are a multi-year answer to a problem that is already affecting project delivery.

Burnham’s education proposals add another part of that pipeline. The Government plans to introduce technical pathways from age 14, combining core academic subjects with technical education, employer exposure and work experience linked to regional industries including engineering, clean energy and advanced manufacturing. The ambition is to begin rolling the model out from September 2028. National Grid has already committed £5 million to an employability programme supporting 5,000 young people, in one early employer response to that push.

Universities also have a role beyond supplying new entrants. National Grid Electricity Transmission has formed five-year innovation partnerships with 10 UK universities, covering areas including power electronics, network planning and digital transformation during the RIIO-T3 period. The practical challenge is connecting that academic capability with a sufficiently deep workforce able to design, deliver, commission and operate the infrastructure that follows.

Dr Mandy Crawford-Lee, Chief Executive of UVAC, said the growth in engineering and manufacturing provision showed universities continuing to respond to areas where workforce pressures were greatest. For employers, however, the next test will be what happens to actual starts rather than advertised provision. A Level 7 course remaining on a university prospectus is useful; whether employers continue sponsoring experienced staff onto it once the funding model changes will tell us considerably more.