The findings follow the launch of a £725 million apprenticeship reform package in England. It includes the removal of the 5% co-investment cost for small and medium-sized employers training apprentices under the age of 25, a measure that does not apply in Scotland.
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SNIPEF’s Apprenticeships Under Pressure report found that 33% of firms did not expect to recruit any apprentices in the next three years.
More than three quarters rated current Scottish Government support as poor or inadequate, and almost all (93%) said increased funding is the single change needed to make recruitment viable. A majority of 62% also said that costs should be shared equally between employers and government, reflecting the balance that previously helped sustain training across the profession.
“Plumbing and heating employers have a long history of supporting apprenticeships,” SNIPEF chief executive Fiona Hodgson said.
“Many of today’s business owners came through the system themselves and know the value it brings to young people, to the profession and to Scotland’s wider economy. But they are being asked to carry more and more of the burden while government support has not kept pace with the reality on the ground.
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“We cannot expect employers to absorb these pressures indefinitely. When the financial risk becomes too high, fewer businesses take on apprentices, and it is young people who lose out. Scotland cannot afford to close off one of the most effective routes into skilled work, good careers and genuine social mobility.”
Scottish businesses are unable to access unused Apprenticeship Levy funds in the way that their counterparts in England can, SNIPEF said, and have no transparency over how Scotland’s share of the levy is spent. Meanwhile, college training contributions have been frozen for almost a decade.
By contrast, the new reforms in England include 50,000 additional apprenticeship places, higher technical education funding, and mechanisms to reallocate levy receipts to frontline training.
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The research found widespread employer support for the current four-year apprenticeship model, with more than 80% backing it as the gold-standard route into the industry. Two-thirds of firms still employ apprentices, but smaller and larger employers alike reported mounting cost pressures.
SNIPEF also identified support for alternative training pathways, with 45% backing pre-apprenticeship or college-first models to spread costs and improve job readiness. Most employers (82 per cent) said they preferred to recruit school-leavers aged 16 to 19.
The federation has called for equal cost-sharing between government and employers, alongside reform of levy access, to avoid long-term damage to the industry.
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