English and maths is funded separately from the band
Optional for most adults since 2025, but still funded — and the funding route is often misunderstood.
English and maths training is funded separately from the apprenticeship funding band. It does not come out of the amount available for the apprenticeship itself, so delivering it does not reduce what you can spend on training the occupational content.
Since February 2025 it has been optional for apprentices who began their training aged 19 or over, except where English or maths forms an essential component of a mandatory qualification within the standard — a determination that sits with the awarding organisation and must be checked standard by standard rather than assumed. Apprentices who began aged 16 to 18 remain subject to the requirement.
The 2026/27 rules added several clarifications. The provider must establish at initial assessment whether the apprentice will study a standalone qualification. Training must not be delivered entirely by self-directed distance learning. If an apprentice aged 19 or over opts in and later withdraws, the provider must withdraw them to the last day of learning. And apprentices may use their statutory adult skills fund entitlement to study English or maths while on an apprenticeship.
Providers must also support apprentices who are exempt to develop these skills anyway, which can draw on Level 1 or Level 2 course material without the apprentice being enrolled on the qualification.
What follows: because it is funded outside the band, there is rarely a funding reason to discourage an apprentice from taking it. The reasons to think carefully are workload and completion risk, not cost.