{"id":537976,"date":"2026-02-11T12:44:26","date_gmt":"2026-02-11T12:44:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/?p=537976"},"modified":"2026-02-11T15:49:12","modified_gmt":"2026-02-11T15:49:12","slug":"school-plan-will-help-apprentices-avoid-limbo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/skills\/school-plan-will-help-apprentices-avoid-limbo-11-02-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"School plan will help apprentices avoid limbo"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>A plan to mandate apprenticeships on school building projects could avoid issues experienced by similar schemes run by councils, according to a sector expert.<\/p>\n<p>The Department for Education (DfE) <a href=\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/buildings\/school-construction-contracts-to-mandate-apprenticeships-10-02-2026\/\">announced yesterday<\/a> that construction firms on school building projects will need to provide apprenticeship and T-level placements under the government\u2019s forthcoming education estates strategy.<\/p>\n<p><em>Construction News<\/em> understands that the policy which will be employed on its school building framework, known as Construction Framework 25 (CF25).<\/p>\n<p>Industry leaders and industry bodies such as the Construction Industry Training Board have long voiced concerns that apprentices on local authority housing projects \u2013 employed under section 106 (s106) agreements \u2013 end up stranded after the project they are working on ends if there are no nearby projects they can move to.<\/p>\n<p>However, the DfE&#8217;s new policy could avoid that problem, Rico Wojtulewicz, head of policy and market insight at the National Federation of Builders, told <em>Construction News.<\/em><\/p>\n<p>\u201cUnlike the Section 106 approach of requiring apprentices on projects, [the] DfE\u2019s school building programme will establish a pipeline of projects and so companies can more ably ensure learners continue their training after a project ends,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The DfE said the new policy, which will be employed on its school building framework, known as Construction Framework 25 (CF25), will create 13,000 apprenticeship and\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.constructionnews.co.uk\/skills\/support-scheme-set-to-help-employers-host-t-level-placements-22-10-2025\/\">T-level<\/a>\u00a0placement opportunities linked to the delivery of new and rebuilt schools across England.<\/p>\n<p>Denise Brennan, general managing director at Joe Brennan Training, also applauded the move, saying it would push up the number of apprenticeships on school build projects.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom our point of view this is a good thing, because they\u2019re not just looking at residential site work, they are looking at [employing apprentices] on school projects, which is great,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>But she voiced \u201cconcerns\u201d that the issues found on local authority housing projects could reemerge on the new school building framework, adding it could be a case of &#8220;same old, same old&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>She said local authorities \u2013 which under s106 have long mandated apprenticeships on housing projects of a certain size \u2013 had in general got better at ensuring contractors have the right number of apprentices on site.<\/p>\n<p>But she said some were still failing to ensure regulations are met, and that fines for failing to employ apprentices were sometimes limited in their impact.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn some boroughs, if the contractor fails to deliver an apprenticeship they will be fined \u00a37,000, which is nothing in the grand scheme of things because it costs more to host an apprentice on site,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe higher the penalty, the more the contractor is going to say: \u2018We are better off having an apprentice than getting a fine\u2019.\u201d With more projects to keep track of, this could become an issue with the school building projects, she said.<\/p>\n<p>Wojtulewicz said he expected the CF25 approach to be \u201cmore successful for apprentices\u201d than the s106 approach. But he warned some regional contractors had missed out on the CF25 due to \u201cdisproportionate barriers to entry\u201d linked to their turnover.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSo despite having a strong delivery track record, [they] have missed out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A plan to mandate apprenticeships on school building projects could avoid issues experienced by similar schemes run by councils, according to a sector expert. The Department for Education (DfE) announced yesterday that construction firms on school building projects will need to provide apprenticeship and T-level placements under the government\u2019s forthcoming education estates strategy. Construction News &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90643,"featured_media":475194,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[565,575],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-537976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government","category-skills","issue-online-news"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.7 (Yoast SEO v26.7) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>School plan will help apprentices avoid limbo | Construction News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A plan to mandate apprenticeships on school building projects could avoid issues experienced by similar schemes run by councils, according to a sector\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" 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