Unlocking Growth: A Changed Approach to Apprenticeships Matters for UK Advertising
Stephen Woodford, Chief Executive
| Advertising Association
The UK advertising and marketing industry is forecast to grow, with UK ad spend projected to rise by 6.8% to £45.4bn in 2025. Yet rigid apprenticeship rules are preventing businesses in the sector, particularly SMEs, from taking on the apprentices who help drive this growth. With the right approach to the upcoming Growth and Skills Levy, the Government can unlock the full potential of apprenticeships to drive growth across all the UK’s regions.
A new report, Unlocking Apprenticeships to Drive Growth, published by the Advertising Association, in collaboration with its members: Channel 4, Google, the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA), and the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM), demonstrates both the transformative, positive impact of apprenticeships within the sector, and the clear case for the Government to be ambitious with the new Growth and Skills Levy, by making it more flexible. Currently, inflexible apprenticeship levy rules are holding back businesses, particularly SMEs, from investing in more young talent, a fact that industry wants to change by working with Government.
By supporting 1.7 million jobs and contributing 4% of UK GVA, the advertising and marketing industry is central to driving business growth across the UK’s regions. The sector’s influence extends far beyond London, with 60% of jobs based in regional hubs like Manchester, Leeds, and Edinburgh, creating specialised clusters that contribute to the UK's economic ecosystem.
And there are apprenticeship success stories from across these regional clusters – young people who have benefited from industry programmes. One such example comes from an apprentice at Channel 4 who started as a Pictures Apprentices in Leeds during lockdown and was eventually hired as a full-time Pictures Assistant. They credit the creative, supportive environment of their apprenticeship at Channel 4 for their personal and professional growth.
Making Apprenticeships Work for Business
Channel 4’s 4Skills programme is a great example of the sector’s commitment to apprenticeships, with Channel 4 committing to spend £10 million annually from 2025 supporting 59 apprentices across departments in London, Leeds, and Glasgow. Likewise, Google’s apprenticeship programme develops the next generation of digital skills through two tracks – digital business and software engineering – with an industry-leading completion rate and high proportion of apprentices securing full-time roles within six months of completing the programme.
Despite these successes, significant barriers to growing the number of apprentices taken on remain. The IPA reports that 78% of levy funds (£5.6 million) from the advertising industry were returned to the Government in 2024 due to restrictive spending rules, and the number of apprentices being taken on by our sector has fallen by 14% since the levy was introduced in 2018. It’s clearly not working well in its current form. The levy’s £3 million threshold (the figure at which businesses start contributing to the levy, based upon their wage bill) is unchanged since its introduction, taking no account of wage inflation, thereby dragging smaller firms into scope.
A More Flexible Growth and Skills Levy
To unlock the true potential of apprenticeships in the advertising and marketing sector, the industry is asking Government to design the new Growth and Skills Levy with greater flexibility. This means policies like allowing levy funds to cover entry-level salaries for the first 12 months which would reduce the financial barriers for SMEs to take on apprentices. It also means updating the £3 million levy threshold in line with inflation, so more smaller firms can invest in apprenticeships without being caught in scope of the threshold; reducing the time to update apprenticeship standards to under six months; faster progression to gateway and end-point assessments for capable apprentices; and introducing KPIs to assess schools’ promotion of apprenticeships, shifting perceptions among parents and teachers.
These changes would enable the advertising and marketing sector to help Government address the challenge of the nearly one million young people not in education, training, or employment. If we can create more apprentices then we can utilise their talents to grow our economy and it would also ensure that apprenticeships continue to drive genuine inclusion amongst the most socio-economically disadvantaged regions of the UK.
UK advertising and marketing is a world-leading creative industry, encouraging economic growth and social contribution on all levels – regionally, nationally, and globally. Making the right decisions now for the Growth and Skills levy will allow our industry to fully invest in the pipeline of new talent we need to maintain this position on the world stage.
Find out more about reforming apprenticeships to drive growth by reading the full report or contact the Advertising Association's Policy and Government Affairs Team at [email protected]
