From 1 January 2026, the government changed how Level 7 apprenticeships are funded. Level 7 is the highest apprenticeship level, broadly master's degree standard, and includes professional routes such as accountancy, law and senior leadership.
Who is still eligible for government funding
- Apprentices aged 16 to 21
- Care leavers aged under 25 at the start of the apprenticeship
- Apprentices with an education, health and care plan aged under 25 at the start
Anyone who started a Level 7 apprenticeship before 1 January 2026 continues to be funded through to completion. Employers remain free to fund Level 7 apprenticeships themselves, outside the government funding system – the change is to who government pays for, not to whether the apprenticeships may exist.
The scale of what is affected
Level 7 is not a niche. In the current August-to-April period there were 28,800 Level 7 starts – more than Level 6 (25,140) – and 67.3% of them were by someone aged 25 or over. Those are the starts most affected.
Why this matters for reading the statistics
The change lands part-way through the August 2025 to April 2026 reporting period, so the current Level 7 figures straddle it. Movements from here on should not be read as employer or learner preference without accounting for the funding change.
Put plainly: if Level 7 starts fall in the next release, that is not evidence that employers or learners went off Level 7 apprenticeships. A funding rule changed half-way through the year. Any analysis that does not say so is attributing a policy effect to preference.