Issued by: HM Treasury

The Chancellor has announced a package to help people into work, education and training, while building the skilled workforce Britain needs for the future.

The package will see the National Wealth Fund used to create and support 130,000 jobs across the UK, expanding local apprenticeship services to connect more young people with employers, and restoring the Union Learning Fund with £15 million a year to help people build new skills.

National Wealth Fund

The Chancellor has announced that Government will use the National Wealth Fund’s current capitalisation to create and support a further 130,000 jobs across the UK by 2030. The National Wealth Fund will support good jobs across sectors including AI and technology, defence and clean energy.

Rolls Royce funding expansion

In a boost for the UK’s advanced manufacturing sector, the Chancellor announced today that Rolls Royce will bring a landmark £300 million investment into its manufacturing and engineering facilities across the UK.

The significant investment reinforces the company’s commitment to the UK’s advanced manufacturing ecosystem, with funding going to factories across the UK. In Derby the company is investing more than £140 million on new engineering and manufacturing services facilities to enable future growth, supporting more than 10,000 employees.

In Bristol, the home of UK military power and propulsion, Rolls-Royce is investing over £90 million on a major facility upgrade programme - supporting the more than 3,500 employees based at the site, including highly skilled engineers.

An investment of £43 million at Inchinnan, Glasgow, is introducing machinery that will enable new engine components to be manufactured while in Rotherham, Rolls-Royce is investing £19 million at its Advanced Blade Casting Facility, doubling its output of advanced turbine blades – a critical component in jet engines – by 2030.

Expanding local apprenticeships services

Local leaders know their areas best and are ideally placed to match young people with small employers to create the apprenticeships their communities need.

Budget 2025 announced government funding to pilot apprenticeship brokerage in some Mayoral Strategic Authorities. Today the Chancellor’s announcement goes further, expanding funding to all 14 existing Mayoral Strategic Authorities with directly elected mayors, so they can help provide local apprenticeship services across England from Spring 2027.

As part of the government’s commitment to expand apprenticeship opportunities for young people, the £100 million of additional funding across 2 years doubles the number of areas matching young people with local businesses. Led by mayors, and driven by the skills and needs of local labour markets, this will deliver thousands more youth apprenticeships, supporting more young people to kickstart their careers.

This builds on government support for the rest of the country including full funding of training and assessment costs for all eligible apprentices aged 16 to 24 and the £3,000 Youth Jobs Grant, while the government’s ambition is to put strategic authorities in place everywhere by the end of 2028.

Union Learning Fund

The Chancellor also confirmed £15 million a year of additional funding to restore the Union Learning Fund in England, helping working people gain new skills, progress at work and adapt as technology, including AI, changes the workplace.

The fund previously generated 180,000 learning opportunities every year and will draw on trade unions’ trusted workplace relationships to reach those people and help them access training through their employers and existing skills programmes.

This fund will help British workers harness AI rather than be outrun by it.

Employees will not need to be union members to benefit, with potential support ranging from essential English, maths and digital skills, to training for jobs in growing industries such as advanced manufacturing.

The Budget will set out details how apprenticeship brokerage expansion and Union Learning Fund are fully funded by savings found by the Department for Work & Pensions.

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