September could bring Britain’s worst manufacturing apprenticeship intake in a decade
Competition for technical and degree apprenticeships is surging, but Yorkshire-based steelwork manufacturer Tadweld is warning that the growing demand for technical careers is being met with a shrinking number of opportunities in manufacturing.
Recent figures reported by the BBC show applications for degree apprenticeships through the government’s central platform have risen from 8,100 to 21,800 in just three years, while available positions have almost halved from 7,300 to 3,700.
Against this backdrop, Tadweld says its September 2026 Level 3 engineering apprenticeship intake is set to be its lowest in a decade, reflecting a wider concern that rising employment costs are making it increasingly difficult for SMEs to provide the hands-on training needed to build Britain’s future skilled workforce.
The warning comes despite Tadweld’s own research showing that skilled trades remain some of the most financially attractive career options available outside the traditional university route.
Drawing on data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), Gov.uk, Indeed and Total Jobs, Tadweld’s original analysis found that across its top 20 trade roles, the average salary was £38,925, broadly in line with the UK median annual salary of £39,039 for full-time employees.
Electricians and welders were among the strongest-performing trades, alongside HVAC engineers, lift technicians and renewable energy installers.
The findings demonstrate the earning potential available to people who choose a technical career, with many skilled trades offering salaries at or above the national median while providing a route into long-term careers without the traditional university route.
But Tadweld says there is a growing disconnect between the attractiveness of these careers and the number of apprenticeship places being made available to enter them.
The company believes the growing competition for apprenticeships demonstrates that demand for vocational and technical education is not the problem.
Chris Houston, managing director at Tadweld says: “The real problem is whether employers – particularly SMEs – can afford to provide the number of apprenticeship places industry needs. At Tadweld, the cost of taking on an apprentice has risen significantly in just a few years. The apprentice minimum wage has increased from £6 an hour in 2023 to £7.50 in 2024 and £10 in 2025, with the minimum wage for under-18s rising again to £10.85 an hour in April 2026.
“We absolutely support fair pay for young workers. But an apprentice is different from a fully trained employee. They are spending a significant proportion of their time in structured training and are still developing the practical skills and experience they need to become fully productive.
“Yet businesses are paying for that employment throughout the apprenticeship, while also carrying the additional costs of supervision, training, equipment, college attendance and developing someone from the ground up.
“For a large company, those costs may be easier to absorb. For SMEs like us, it determines how many apprentices we can actually afford to take on.
“That is the contradiction we are now facing: Britain desperately needs more skilled engineers and welders, young people want to enter these careers, but the rising cost of employing and training an apprentice means businesses like ours are having to reduce the number of opportunities we can offer.”
The UK is expected to need around 35,000 new welders over the next five years, yet only 231 welding apprentices were trained across the country in 2024.
According to the Construction Industry Training Board (CITB), the wider construction and manufacturing sector will also require more than 250,000 additional workers by 2028 to meet demand.
The figures highlight the risk of losing future capacity in one of the UK’s most important The company believes policymakers need to consider the position of the SMEs that provide much of Britain’s practical skills training, particularly in specialist areas such as welding, fabrication and engineering.
“The whole point of an apprenticeship is that you are investing in someone who will become a highly skilled member of your workforce,” Houston added.
“That investment takes time, and businesses need to be able to afford to make it.
“We have a situation where some of the best-paid trades in the country are also some of the trades facing the biggest shortages, yet the pipeline into those careers is becoming harder for smaller businesses to maintain.
“If we want more welders, engineers and electricians in the future, we need to make sure businesses can afford to train them today.”
Tadweld is urging policymakers to work more closely with SMEs to ensure that apprenticeship policy supports, rather than restricts, the businesses responsible for delivering much of the country’s practical skills training.
The company says that without sufficient Level 3 apprenticeship opportunities, the UK risks creating a widening gap between the number of people who want to pursue high-value technical careers and the number of skilled workers the industry is able to train.