Skills England Explained: What the New Body Means for Training Providers and Employers

Last updated: 31 March 2026

The launch of Skills England in April 2025 marked the most significant structural reform to the English skills system since the apprenticeship trailblazer model was introduced in 2013. Created under the Skills England Act 2025 and replacing the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE), Skills England has a fundamentally different mandate — broader, more strategic, and more explicitly connected to national economic priorities.

For training providers, the transition changes the regulatory and qualification landscape they operate in. For employers, it changes how skills priorities are identified and how levy funding can be used. And for the apprenticeship sector specifically, it triggers a programme of standard reform that will affect how programmes are designed, assessed, and quality-assured.

This guide explains what Skills England is, how it differs from IfATE, what the apprenticeship standard reform programme involves, and what training providers and employers should do in response.

What Is Skills England?

Skills England is an arm’s-length body of the Department for Education, established under the Skills England Act 2025. It became operationally responsible for its full range of functions in April 2025, following a transition period during which IfATE wound down and transferred its functions, staff, and systems.

The body was created in response to a consistent criticism of the UK skills system: that it was fragmented, qualification-heavy, and insufficiently connected to actual employer needs and labour market outcomes. The Autumn 2024 Labour manifesto committed to creating Skills England as a vehicle for “bringing together businesses, training providers, and unions to ensure we have the highly trained workforce our economy needs.”

Why Skills England Was Created: The Problem With IfATE

To understand what Skills England is trying to do differently, it helps to understand the criticisms of its predecessor.

IfATE was effective at its core function — developing high-quality technical qualifications through employer-led trailblazer groups. The apprenticeship standards it produced were broadly respected for their occupational relevance and rigour. But several structural problems had become apparent by 2024:

Fragmentation of the Skills Landscape

IfATE operated alongside Ofqual (which regulated qualifications), ESFA (which managed funding), Ofsted (which inspected providers), DfE (which set policy), and a network of Local Enterprise Partnerships managing Skills Bootcamp contracts. The result was a system in which no single body had a strategic overview. Standards were developed in isolation from funding decisions; funding decisions were made without real-time labour market intelligence; and providers navigated multiple regulatory relationships that did not always speak to each other.

Disconnect Between Skills Supply and Employer Demand

The trailblazer model — where employer groups design standards — was supposed to ensure occupational relevance. In practice, the groups that were most active in trailblazer development were often large employers in particular sectors, meaning that the standards landscape over-represented some occupational areas and under-represented others. The resulting occupational map had significant gaps, particularly in emerging roles in AI, data, green economy, and care.

The Apprenticeship Levy Imbalance

By 2024, well over half of Apprenticeship Levy funding was being spent on management, leadership, and professional standards by large employers — rather than on the technical skills that the apprenticeship programme was originally designed to address. The gap between what the levy funded and what the economy most needed had become politically untenable.

How Skills England Differs From IfATE

The differences between Skills England and IfATE are significant. Understanding them helps providers and employers anticipate how the regulatory and funding environment will change.

Broader Mandate: Workforce Intelligence, Not Just Qualifications

IfATE’s mandate was essentially technical: develop and approve qualifications, maintain the occupational map, quality-assure assessment organisations. Skills England’s mandate is strategic. It is responsible for:

• Producing an annual Skills Assessment — a comprehensive review of national skills needs, gaps, and priorities based on labour market data, employer surveys, and economic forecasting
• Advising government on where skills investment should be directed, across all DfE-funded provision not just apprenticeships
• Coordinating with the network of Local Skills Improvement Plans (LSIPs) to align national and regional skills strategies
• Working with industrial strategy sector plans to ensure skills provision supports key sectors including advanced manufacturing, clean energy, digital, and life sciences

In practice, this means Skills England produces the evidence that shapes funding decisions — which qualification types are approved for the Growth and Skills Levy, which occupational areas receive additional investment, and which Skills Bootcamp themes are prioritised in contract rounds.

Direct Employer Engagement

IfATE engaged with employers primarily through trailblazer groups — a consultation mechanism that, while valuable, was slow and self-selecting. Skills England has committed to a broader and faster employer engagement model, including:

• A standing Employer Advisory Council with rotating sector representation
• Annual employer skills surveys across all major sectors, with findings published in the Skills Assessment
• Direct engagement with LSIP Employer Representative Bodies to gather regional labour market intelligence
• Faster consultation processes for standard revision — targeting an 18-month maximum from review initiation to revised standard publication (compared to the multi-year timelines that were common under IfATE)

Growth and Skills Levy Oversight

The most consequential change for training providers is Skills England’s oversight of the Growth and Skills Levy, which replaced the Apprenticeship Levy from August 2025. The Growth and Skills Levy funds a broader range of provision than its predecessor — not only full apprenticeship standards but also shorter qualifications and industry micro-credentials approved by Skills England.

This means Skills England’s qualification approval decisions directly determine the range of levy-fundable provision. For providers, this creates both opportunity (new qualification types they can offer on the levy) and risk (qualifications they currently deliver may be reviewed or removed from levy eligibility if Skills England’s assessment suggests they are not meeting labour market needs).

The Apprenticeship Standard Reform Programme

One of Skills England’s most immediate priorities is a systematic review and reform of apprenticeship standards — a programme that will directly affect providers’ programme design and delivery over the next two to three years.

The First Wave: 93 Standards

Skills England announced the first wave of the apprenticeship assessment reform programme covering 93 standards — primarily standards where the end-point assessment (EPA) model was identified as having weaknesses in terms of consistency, reliability, or cost-effectiveness.

The reform programme for each standard in the first wave involves:

• A review of the EPA method mix against the knowledge, skills, and behaviours (KSBs) in the standard — identifying whether the current EPA methods are the most valid and reliable way to assess the standard
• A review of the grading criteria — ensuring that grade descriptors are clearly differentiated and consistently applied across assessment organisations
• A review of the gateway requirements — assessing whether current gateway criteria are proportionate and do not create unnecessary barriers to EPA
• In some cases, a review of the standard itself — updating KSBs where occupational practice has changed significantly since the standard was last revised

Providers delivering standards in the first wave should be engaging actively with the reform process. Skills England has committed to consulting providers alongside employers in the review — but provider input is most influential in the early stages of review, before assessment organisation positions have crystallised.

What the Reform Means for Programme Design

For providers, changes to EPA methodology, grading criteria, or gateway requirements can have significant implications for how programmes are designed and delivered. A change to the EPA method mix — for example, removing a professional discussion and replacing it with a portfolio assessment — requires changes to the off-the-job curriculum, the approach to evidence gathering, and the way progress reviews are structured.

Providers should not wait for revised standards to be published before beginning to plan. Where you know a standard you deliver is in the first wave of reform, you should:

• Review current programme design against the existing standard to identify any areas where delivery is already stretched
• Engage with your End-Point Assessment Organisation (EPAO) to understand their position on likely changes
• Begin scenario planning for how programme changes would be implemented — including implications for existing learner cohorts
• Ensure your curriculum mapping and KSB tracking systems are flexible enough to accommodate standard revisions without a full rebuild

The Occupational Map Review

Beyond the EPA reform programme, Skills England is conducting a broader review of the occupational map — the framework that organises all technical qualifications into occupational routes and levels. This review has the potential to result in standards being merged (where two standards cover overlapping occupational territory), split (where a single standard has grown too broad), or retired (where the occupation it describes is declining or has been superseded).

For providers, the occupational map review creates a medium-term planning challenge. Investing significantly in a standard that is subsequently retired or merged represents a poor return. Providers should monitor the review’s progress and engage where their key standards are under consideration.

Impact on Training Providers

For training providers, the creation of Skills England creates both opportunities and challenges. Here is a structured assessment.

Register Reform and Quality Expectations

Skills England is working with DfE and Ofsted on a review of the Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers (RoATP). The review is expected to result in higher quality thresholds for registration — providers must demonstrate not just capacity to deliver but evidence of quality outcomes, particularly learner achievement and employer satisfaction.

Providers with strong outcome data are well-positioned for the register reform. Those with weaker data — particularly around EPA achievement rates and employer NPS — should treat the reform as a prompt to improve their data collection and quality assurance processes.

New Qualification Types on the Growth & Skills Levy

The expansion of levy-eligible provision is a genuine opportunity for providers. Skills England is approving shorter qualifications — modular courses and industry micro-credentials — for levy funding. Providers that can develop strong shorter provision in priority skills areas (AI and data, green economy, advanced manufacturing, care) are well-placed to grow their levy-funded portfolio.

The quality bar for Skills England qualification approval is high — providers need to demonstrate employer demand evidence, clear occupational outcomes, and a robust assessment approach. But for providers with a strong track record in a priority area, the opportunity to access levy funding for non-apprenticeship provision is significant.

Changing Quality Expectations

Skills England’s mandate includes improving the quality and consistency of delivery across the sector — not just the quality of qualifications. Working alongside Ofsted, it will raise expectations around: the quality of off-the-job training (content, mode, and integration with workplace practice); the rigour of progress review processes; the effectiveness of employer engagement; and the accuracy and timeliness of learner progress data.

Providers that invest in robust management information systems, high-quality off-the-job curriculum, and structured employer engagement will be well-positioned for the quality environment Skills England is creating.

Impact on Employers

For employers — whether levy-paying organisations or smaller employers co-investing in apprenticeships — Skills England changes both the opportunity landscape and the engagement model.

More Voice in Skills Priorities

Skills England’s employer engagement model gives larger employers — and, through LSIP structures, smaller employers in regional clusters — a more direct route to influencing which qualifications receive levy funding and which skills gaps are prioritised. Employers who engage with their sector LSIP and with Skills England’s annual employer survey can shape the skills landscape in their sector in ways that were not straightforward under IfATE.

Growth & Skills Levy Flexibility

The Growth and Skills Levy gives employers more flexibility in how they use their levy funds — not only for full apprenticeship standards but also for approved shorter provision. This means employers can use levy funds for targeted upskilling of existing staff without committing to a full 12–18 month apprenticeship programme. The caveat is that only provision approved by Skills England for the levy is eligible — employers cannot simply use levy funds for any training they choose.

Workforce Planning Intelligence

Skills England’s annual Skills Assessment — a publicly available document — provides employers with authoritative data on national and sectoral skills needs. For HR and L&D leaders who need to make the business case for training investment, the Skills Assessment provides an evidence base that carries government authority.

What Training Providers Should Do Now

The Skills England transition has clear action implications for training providers. Here is a prioritised agenda.

Engage With Standards Reform

If you deliver any of the 93 standards in the first wave of the EPA reform programme, you should be engaged in the review process. Contact Skills England’s employer engagement team, connect with your EPAO’s account manager, and participate in any consultation exercises for your key standards.

Review Your Qualification Portfolio

Assess your current portfolio against Skills England’s qualification approval priorities and the occupational map review. Identify standards or qualifications that are at risk of revision or retirement, and assess whether investment in those programmes should be accelerated, maintained, or reduced pending the review outcome.

Update Programme Design

Whether or not your standards are in the first reform wave, the quality expectations associated with Skills England’s mandate mean that programme quality — particularly off-the-job curriculum quality and progress review rigour — will face increased scrutiny. Audit your current programmes against Ofsted’s Inspection Framework and against the Education and Training Foundation’s quality standards for off-the-job training.

Explore Shorter Qualification Opportunities

The Growth and Skills Levy’s expansion to include shorter qualifications is an opportunity for providers to grow their levy-funded portfolio beyond apprenticeships. Identify skills areas where you have genuine expertise, employer relationships, and evidence of demand — and assess whether a shorter levy-eligible qualification could be developed and approved within a 12–18 month horizon.

Skills England Transition Checklist for Training Providers

• Confirmed which of your apprenticeship standards are in the first wave of the EPA reform programme
• Engaged with your EPAO on their position regarding likely standard changes
• Reviewed current programme design against potential EPA methodology changes for affected standards
• Confirmed your position on the current Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers (RoATP)
• Reviewed outcome data (EPA achievement, employer satisfaction, learner completion) and identified improvement priorities
• Reviewed the current Growth and Skills Levy eligible qualifications list for your delivery areas
• Assessed whether any of your existing provision is at risk of removal from levy eligibility
• Identified skills areas where you could develop shorter levy-eligible qualifications
• Engaged with your regional LSIP to understand regional skills priorities
• Updated curriculum mapping and KSB tracking systems to accommodate potential standard revisions
• Reviewed off-the-job training quality against Ofsted Inspection Framework criteria
• Built Skills England qualification approval timeline into your programme development planning

Frequently Asked Questions

What is Skills England?

Skills England is the government body responsible for strategic workforce skills planning in England, created under the Skills England Act 2025 and operational from April 2025. It replaced IfATE, taking on responsibility for apprenticeship standards ownership, Growth and Skills Levy qualification approval, and national skills intelligence. Unlike IfATE, it has a broad strategic mandate to identify national skills needs, coordinate between employer demand and training supply, and work with LSIP networks to align regional provision with labour market needs.

Will Skills England change apprenticeship funding?

Skills England oversees the Growth and Skills Levy, which replaced the Apprenticeship Levy from August 2025. The Growth and Skills Levy allows employers to fund a broader range of qualifications beyond full apprenticeship standards, including shorter courses and industry micro-credentials approved by Skills England. Funding bands for individual standards, the levy rate, and employer co-investment requirements remain under DfE control. Providers and employers should monitor Skills England’s qualification approval announcements as the range of levy-eligible provision is expected to expand significantly through 2026.

How does Skills England affect existing apprenticeship standards?

Existing standards remain valid unless formally revised or withdrawn. The first wave of the assessment reform programme covers 93 standards where EPA models are being reviewed. Training providers delivering affected standards should engage with the review process, connect with their EPAOs, and begin scenario planning for programme changes. Standards not in the first reform wave continue under existing EPA arrangements, but all standards are subject to the ongoing occupational map review, which may result in standards being merged, split, or retired over the medium term.