The latest statistics from the Department for Education (DfE) revealed a 28% decline in construction apprenticeship starts between August 2017 and March 2018 compared with the same period the previous academic year.
Brian Berry, Chief Executive of the FMB, said the initiative was introduced to boost apprenticeship training across all business sectors "but so far it seems to be having the opposite effect".
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"Some reforms are obvious and need to be looked at more urgently now," he said.
"The Government should allow large companies to pass more of their Levy vouchers down through their supply chains if the company itself is not in a position to train apprentices. Currently large firms are only permitted to pass 10% of their Levy funds down to their sub-contractors and others in their supply chain.
"There needs to be much greater flexibility than this. In the construction sector, larger firms often do not directly employ on-site tradespeople or directly train apprentices and so there is a real danger this industry and others will continue to fail to take advantage of the Apprenticeship Levy if we can't change this."
(LM/MH)
