DWP sets out how Apprenticeship Units will be funded under the Growth and Skills Levy

The Department for Work and Pensions has published the technical funding guide for apprenticeship units, the new short course offer that launched for new starts on 28 April 2026 under the Growth and Skills Levy.

The guide sets out how the units will be funded, who can deliver them, and how payments will be sequenced against existing apprenticeships. It confirms that payments will be split across two milestones and restricts initial delivery to existing providers on the Apprenticeship Provider and Assessment Register. Coinvestment is set at 95% government and 5% employer for levy payers with insufficient funds. Employers who do not pay the levy are fully funded up to the funding rate. Apprenticeships will be prioritised ahead of units in employer accounts where funds are short.

What the guide confirms

The units themselves run between 30 and 140 hours across one to sixteen weeks, target employees aged 19 and over, and are built from existing occupational standards. Skills England recommends the funding rates and holds the live list of approved units.

Initial delivery is tightly restricted. Providers must already be on the Apprenticeship Provider and Assessment Register, actively delivering in the standards or tier 2 sector subject areas the units are drawn from, free of any “at risk” indicators on the Apprenticeship Accountability Framework, and clear of contractual funding restrictions. Subcontracting is not permitted in any form. The department says it will consider opening up to a wider provider group later in 2026 once delivery has been monitored and refined.

Payments come in two milestones rather than the monthly profiling used for full apprenticeships. The first 30% of the funding rate is paid once the learner has been onboarded and 30% of planned delivery hours have been completed, recorded in the ILR using new LDM code 404. The remaining 70% follows on completion, contingent on a passed assessment and a signed off training plan. LDM code 403 identifies the aim as an apprenticeship unit and is required for the data to flow into the apprenticeship service at all.

Where a levy account runs short in a given month, apprenticeships are paid first and units fall to coinvestment. The annual transfer allowance, currently 50% of the previous year’s levy declaration, covers apprenticeships and units combined. There is no separate pot for the new offer, which means any uptick in unit transfers will reduce headroom for transfers into full apprenticeships.

Learning support is fixed at a flat £150 per learner, claimed via the Earnings Adjustment Statement once milestone one is reached. Costs above £150 require a separate claim and prior authorisation.

The guide also lands as one of the first technical funding documents published under the DWP banner rather than DfE, a small but visible marker of the recent transfer of the skills brief between departments.

The full guide is available on GOV.UK.