The Institute of the Motor Industry (IMI) has welcomed the Prime Minister’s commitment to ensuring every young person can ‘go as far as their talent or effort will take them’.
However, the voice of the automotive workforce believes that without meaningful reform of the apprenticeship system, the ambition risks falling short for industries that are at the heart of UK social and economic infrastructure – including the motor industry.
The government has announced that apprenticeships are being placed at the heart of a new approach to skills, giving young people more ways to build secure careers and offering employers the workforce they need to grow.
Plans are in place to make it even easier for young people to find and access opportunities in one place through JobHelp, bringing together online support on jobs, skills, apprenticeships and training. JobHelp is designed to help young people navigate the system more easily and find routes into work that fit around their needs.
This is part of a package of reforms, that includes offering businesses £3,000 for every young person aged 18–24 they hire who has been on Universal Credit and looking for work for six months which is expected to support 60,000 young people into work over three years.
This comes alongside a £2,000 Apprenticeship Incentive for each new 16–24‑year‑old taken on by a smaller will help drive progress towards the Government’s ambition of creating 50,000 more apprenticeships for young people.
The Jobs Guarantee is also being expanded from 18–21 to 18–24, creating more than 35,000 additional subsidised jobs and taking the total number of opportunities supported through the scheme to over 90,000 in the next three years.
More help needed
However, the IMI believes further reforms are needed to help provide a system that benefits both learners and employers. This is especially key as the automotive industry faces its biggest transformation in decades.
“The Prime Minister’s pledge to go ‘much further’ in investing in apprenticeships, Technical Excellence Colleges, and provision for young people ‘struggling to find a job’ is exactly what our sector needs,” highlighted Nick Connor, CEO of the IMI. “With the UK’s transition to electric vehicles accelerating, demand for skilled technicians has never been greater, yet apprenticeship starts in automotive have fallen by 30% over the past decade, leaving skills gaps in critical areas like EV maintenance, diagnostics, and emerging technologies.
“We also know that levy funds in automotive are underused in comparison to other sectors, limiting investment in training at the pace and scale needed.
“We share the Prime Minister’s conviction that every young person deserves a clear, high-quality pathway into work. The automotive industry offers exactly that – modern, technology-driven careers. But the system is not working for our sector. We need reform now.”
Apprenticeship reform
The IMI is calling on government to deliver apprenticeship reform that works for employers and learners alike. The IMI has set out clear priorities in its Apprenticeship and Skills Levy Reform statement:
- Safeguard quality and smooth delivery to enable apprenticeships to remain the gold standard for producing work-ready individuals, with robust, hands-on assessment models for safety-critical roles.
- Give employers genuine flexibility to invest levy funds where they see the greatest need, whether in apprenticeships, modular training, or continuous professional development.
- Make the system simple and accessible, particularly for SMEs, with clear rules, easy levy transfer processes, and practical guidance.
- Align national and regional delivery, embedding modular pathways and IMI standards into Skills England, LSIPs, and the Lifelong Learning Entitlement so that learning can scale effectively.
- Support the attraction of new talent into the sector through complementary campaigns and pathways that show automotive careers as visible, inclusive, and rewarding.
“Technical Excellence Colleges and a strengthened Skills England offer a genuine opportunity to embed automotive pathways in the national skills architecture,” added Connor. “The IMI is keen to work with government, training providers, and the wider industry to ensure young people – and those looking to retrain – see automotive as a modern, sustainable, and rewarding career.”
