The number of businesses offering a marketing apprenticeship has fallen for the second consecutive year, according to exclusive Marketing Week data.
As National Apprenticeship Week kicks off today (10 February), the 2025 Career & Salary Survey reveals three quarters (75.9%) of the more than 3,500 marketers surveyed work for a business that does not offer a marketing apprenticeship.
Just 15.9% of the sample work for an organisation running such a scheme. The 2025 figure is down on 2024 (20.6%) levels and less than half (33.6%) the number of businesses running a marketing apprenticeship in 2023.
This picture is consistent regardless of business size or function. Most (81.4%) B2B respondents work for a company that doesn’t offer a marketing apprenticeship and the same is true within B2C (75.3%).
SMEs (250 employees and under) are less likely (85.2%) than large organisations (68.9%) to run a marketing apprenticeship.
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When asked why their company doesn’t run a marketing apprenticeship, nearly a quarter (22.5%) of the total sample say it requires too much time and resource to maintain an effective scheme, while 16.4% claim their business doesn’t currently see the value in it.
A further 9.1% report not being able to get buy-in at the highest level for such an initiative, while 6.5% of respondents say their business believes it’s simply too complicated to develop a programme.
It makes sense resourcing would be a bigger issue for smaller businesses, with more than a quarter (26.2%) saying such programmes take too much time and resource to maintain, compared to 19% of large organisations.
The free text element of the survey reveals budget constraints and the size of the business are the main reasons cited for not running an apprenticeship.
One respondent says their company already has a graduate scheme and therefore has no need for an apprenticeship. One marketer explains the scheme was cut in their business last year, while another claims the leadership changes too frequently for any initiatives to be followed through.
What next?
Apprenticeships are a cornerstone of the government’s skills agenda. In September, it was announced the new Growth and Skills Levy will replace the existing Apprenticeship Levy and include the introduction of foundation apprenticeships.
The revamped levy opens up funding for shorter apprenticeships of six months, the idea being to offer greater flexibility. Currently, apprenticeships must run for at least 12 months.
Skills England, which launched in July 2024 to take over the functions of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, will decide on funding under the new levy following an assessment of “priority skills needs”.
To fund the changes, employers are being asked to “rebalance” and “invest in younger workers”, funding Level 7 degree apprenticeships outside the levy.
The first report from Skills England, published in September, found general employer training spend is at its lowest level since records began in 2011, with investment per employee down by 19% in real terms.
Speaking last week (6 February) at the LEAD conference, Minister for Culture, Media and Sport, Chris Bryant, reiterated the government’s decision to reform the Apprenticeship Levy.
“I know lots of people in the industry have said to me: ‘It just doesn’t work for us at the moment.’ And that’s what we’re very focused on doing,” he said.
Bryant claimed shortening the length of apprenticeships to six months would offer a “greater sense of portability”, allowing schemes to switch between different employers, which he said would be of benefit to the creative industries.
“Indeed, there’s a perfectly good argument for saying, because of the ecosystem that I’ve been talking about, the Apprenticeship Levy should enable you to go from different parts of the ecosystem to be able to perfect your craft,” Bryant added.
Marketing Week will be reporting on exclusive data from the 2025 Career & Salary Survey over the coming weeks, including analysis of the state of apprenticeships, exploring pay gaps, in-demand skills and the changing face of recruitment.
