Learning and Skills Assessor loses funding from September 2026
A funded route into this occupation closes, and for most of the sixteen no replacement has been announced.
Learning and Skills Assessor at Level 3 is one of sixteen apprenticeship standards losing funding from no earlier than 1 September 2026. Level 3, 12 months, maximum funding £5,000, reference ST1380, currently at version 1.1.
What changes: government funding is withdrawn for new starts. Apprentices already on programme are unaffected and remain funded through to completion. What you cannot do is start anyone new after the cut-off.
The practical deadline is earlier than the formal one. Eligibility checks, contracting and onboarding typically take six to eight weeks, so a start that has not been set up well before September will not be funded.
The reason given is budget pressure combined with a policy shift towards younger apprentices. Skills England has noted the offer grew beyond 700 standards while starts among 16 to 24 year olds fell around 40% over a decade, with growth concentrated in older, higher-level and more expensive provision.
What to do about it: if you deliver this standard, decide now whether learners can move to an adjacent standard on Education and early years, whether apprenticeship units can cover the same capability, or whether development here moves outside the levy entirely. If you are an employer using it as a pipeline, you need that answer before the cut-off rather than after it.