Education and early years: three standards defunded, and the assessor pipeline breaks
The sector loses the apprenticeship route into the roles that train apprentices.
Three standards on this route lose funding from September 2026: Learning and Skills Assessor at Level 3, Learning and Skills Mentor at Level 4 and Outdoor Learning Specialist at Level 5. The first two are the standards the FE sector itself used to develop assessors and mentors.
There is a circularity here worth stating plainly. Providers used the Learning and Skills Assessor apprenticeship to qualify the people who assess other apprentices. Removing it does not remove the need for assessors; it removes the funded route into becoming one, at a point when reformed assessment plans are increasing the demands on that workforce.
Elsewhere on the route, Specialist Teaching Assistant at Level 5 has a reformed assessment plan taking effect from 14 December 2026, one of the first cohort of standards to move under assessment reform. Teacher — Undergraduate at Level 6 moved to version 2.0 in August 2026. Early Years Lead Practitioner at Level 5 had its band raised from £8,000 to £9,000. Early Years Teacher with EYTS at Level 6 moved to version 1.1.
What follows: if you deliver the assessor or mentor standards, September 2026 is a hard stop for new starts and there is no announced replacement. Existing apprentices remain funded to completion. Workforce planning for your own assessment capacity should assume self-funded or non-apprenticeship development from that point, and the Specialist Teaching Assistant reformed plan is worth reading early as an indicator of what the rest of the reform looks like.
Every changed standard on this route — 12
Kept current from the register, so it reflects today rather than when this was written.