Helping individuals and employers to get the skills they need
And we are extending the entitlements that will be available through Skills Accounts for young adults aged 19-25 in work. From this Autumn, we will ensure that a young person's first Level 3 training is free to the individual and their employer. This support can help young adults gain valuable vocational qualifications in technician, associate professional and advanced craft skills, to equip them for the job opportunities of the future, particularly in the sectors of the economy where these skills will be at a premium.
We are looking to provide further help to adults who need to train at Level 3, particularly in the skills needed for our economic future, but who find a range of barriers in their way. For example, this could help women seeking to change career, progress in work or retrain before returning to work. As part of the trials in the South East and East Midlands, we will test ways of using Skills Accounts to enable adults to gain access to Level 3 programmes and to provide associated financial support, for example to help with childcare costs.
From 2010, Skills Accounts will also ensure that Apprentices from age 18 receive an Apprenticeship Credit towards the costs. This will help to ensure that all eligible young people are able to take up their entitlement to an Apprenticeship. The credit will make clearer, for both the employer and the Apprentice, the substantial funding we are investing. This is currently some £900 million, rising to £1,100 million per annum in 2010-11, to support expansion of Apprenticeship numbers from 180,000 starts in 2006/07 to 250,000 in 2019/20. This is sufficient to meet our Leitch ambition of 400,000 Apprentices in England. And we're now funding an additional 1,200 adult Apprenticeships in the best training programmes available, to provide the skills needed for the jobs of the future.
All employers, from the public, private and third sectors, have much to gain from these reforms, with their clear focus on the needs of their business. And we are channelling substantial sums for skills training through Train to Gain, where employers will control the spending of over £1 billion of training provision by 2010-11. Since national roll-out began in April 2006, Train to Gain has engaged nearly 90,000 employers, enabling over 450,000 employees to begin learning programmes. Over 210,000 people have already gained new qualifications, ranging from the basic skills of literacy and numeracy through to Level 3 and leadership and management training.
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