Politics Home | Making the Growth and Skills Levy work in practice: CCEP’s view from Wakefield

The Growth and Skills Levy, which comes into force in April 2026, offers an opportunity to support that process and change how employers invest in people. By replacing the current Apprenticeship Levy and giving employers more flexibility to invest in shorter, modular training alongside traditional apprenticeships, it has the potential to create a system that better reflects how work is changing.

But that can only happen if reform is designed around real jobs and workplaces.

At Coca-Cola Europacific Partners (CCEP), we see three priorities from an FMCG and manufacturing perspective.

Building a skills system that keeps pace with change

For us, the most pressing skills gap is digital and automation. Manufacturing environments are evolving rapidly, and roles are shifting in response.

Employers need routes that allow people to build high-quality skills at the pace that jobs are changing, and that isn’t always easy to do. That includes shorter, targeted ‘bolt-on’ training options that can help address urgent gaps in areas like AI and advanced automation, while still supporting long-term career progression.

The Growth and Skills Levy can help unlock this flexibility, but only if it works both for new entrants and for colleagues already in work who need to upskill as their roles evolve.

Protecting standards while improving assessment clarity

Assessment reform presents an opportunity to move away from a single, high-stakes moment at the very end, towards clearer, staged assessment throughout a programme.

In manufacturing, competence and confidence go hand in hand with safety. Any changes must preserve high standards, particularly in environments like ours, while making the system clearer and easier to navigate for apprentices and employers alike.

Any reform must protect the integrity of occupational standards, while giving apprentices a clearer and more supportive experience.

Reaching young people earlier

One of the biggest challenges for early careers in our industry is perception. Institute of Grocery Distribution research found that 72 per cent of young people don’t consider the food and drink industry a place where they could learn essential skills, and 57 per cent have felt pressure to pursue more ‘traditional’ careers.¹

If we want more people to choose technical routes, we have to reach them earlier and demonstrate the fantastic opportunities that exist in this vital part of the UK’s manufacturing economy.

At CCEP, we’re continuing to build relationships with schools and colleges and engaging with young people from age 14 onwards. We’ve seen colleagues start in frontline roles and go on to build careers in engineering, digital, sales and leadership. Our Career Builder programme is open to colleagues of any age, and 144 colleagues have used it to progress since its launch.

T-levels also have an important role to play, but practical challenges remain – particularly in engineering, where aligning placement requirements with a live manufacturing environment can be complex. Ongoing dialogue between employers and Skills England will be vital to ensure these routes work in practice.

Partnership in action

These are precisely the issues we discussed when we recently welcomed Gemma Marsh, Deputy CEO of Skills England, to our Wakefield manufacturing site.

Seeing apprentices and colleagues interact on a manufacturing site makes it clear why policy design must be grounded in operational reality. Skills show up every day on a manufacturing line – in how safely a line runs, how confidently someone handles equipment and how quickly a team can respond when technology changes.

Skills England has convening power that can bring employers closer to the system. Reform will be stronger if it’s shaped with different sectors in mind and informed by the experience of those investing in skills for the long term.

Making reform work

The Growth and Skills Levy is a chance to build a system that keeps pace with the world of work.

From our perspective, the priorities should be to design new training options in partnership with employers so they match real job roles; maintain high and trusted standards while improving clarity of assessments, particularly where safety is critical; and strengthen the pipeline into technical roles through earlier engagement with schools and T-levels.

We’re committed to continuing to work with stakeholders, including Skills England, to help ensure the new levy achieves its objectives.

The introduction of the Growth and Skills Levy is a real opportunity to evolve the apprenticeship system so that it is fit for the future, but reform will only succeed if it works for people. That means apprentices building confidence, managers creating space for them to learn and a system that supports progression at every stage of a career.

References

1. https://www.igd.com/articles/uk-food-industry-backs-igds-mmmake-your-mark-campaign/71603