Skills Bootcamps

Government Transformation and Service Delivery

Record date: 31 March 2026

Whole-life cost: £790.4m
Published schedule: 01/04/2020 – Low: 31/03/2026, Mid: 29/05/2026, High: 31/05/2026
NISTA delivery confidence: Not disclosed
Senior responsible owner: Kate Ridley-Pepper

What the project is for

Skills Bootcamps are free training courses for adults typically lasting up to 16 weeks, available across a range of sectors. They help people develop priority skills that are in demand at both local and national level. They are developed by training providers in partnership with employers. Skills Bootcamps have previously been delivered through two routes: national contracts managed in the Skills Bootcamps team in DfE, and grant funding to local areas which then procure and manage their own Skills Bootcamps to meet local skills needs. However, the Secretary of State for Education confirmed on 31 July 2024 that we do not expect to undertake any further national procurement at this time. The current national contracts will end live delivery by 31/07/2025 and conclude by 31/01/2026. The National delivery of the programme will end on the 31/03/2026. In addition, in line with Government priorities and as set out in the English Devolution Framework White Paper on 16/12/24, the Work Based Skills Directorate will be working to devolve delivery to local areas, beginning with two Mayoral Combined Authorities in 2025-26 and expanding more widely in 2026-27. Devolved local areas will receive un-ringfenced funding to deliver skills provision in their areas that will best meet their local needs. This move away from centrally managed national contracts and towards devolved delivery will involve much less active management and monitoring of delivery quality and outcomes and therefore a much smaller team, and Skills Bootcamps is expected to close as a government major programme, having successfully completed the Gate 5 review in June 2025, and all six recommendations being met and signed-off by the DWP Delivery and Performance Board by 16/04/2026. Off boarding is likely to be completed by 31/05/2026.

Departmental delivery commentary

Compared to financial year 24/25 Q4, the Delivery Confidence Assessment (DCA) rating at 25/26 Q4 remained at AMBER. There remain workload pressures, but the resource position is currently stable. We are currently working to resolve staff allocated to the national contract programme as we transition into BAU. The risk of overspend the Skills Bootcamps programme budget in FY2025-26, is due to stronger-than-expected performance in local areas, resulting in the budget being allocated more quickly than expected. DWP has agreed to cover a significant proportion of the financial shortfall. Costs for the on-going legal challenge and legal claim are still on-going and are yet to be finalised. This will also transfer to DWP. Mitigations have been undertaken and senior colleagues have been in discussions with DWP, who have agreed to cover a substantial proportion of the financial shortfall. Grant activity and other related functions will continue as part of BAU operations as this work transitions to DWP.

Schedule

Compared to financial year 24/25-Q4, the project's end-date at 25/26-Q4 remained the same as 31/05/2026. National delivery of the programme will end on the 31/03/2026. We expect that the programme will exit the GMPP on the 31/05/2026, as Mayoral Strategic Authorities (MSAs) increasingly assume responsibility for adult skills delivery from FY26-27.

Cost

The programmes whole life costs are £790.39m (when applying an inflator). The winding down of national delivery means that spend in more recent years is lower than in previous years due to spend now only being on grants delivery.

Benefits

We intend to develop a more robust baseline once the London School of Economics (LSE) Impact Evaluation of Waves 2 and 3 has been completed which will compare the outcomes of individuals who receive the intervention to a statistically matched comparison group and/or other econometric methods. The Impact Evaluation is scheduled to be available internally towards the end of 2026. It is too early in delivery to provide a forecast for FY25/26 as courses can run up to 31 March 2026, and providers then have a six-month window following the completion of the training to claim a positive outcome. The Impact Evaluation will compare the outcomes of individuals who receive the intervention to a statistically matched comparison group and/or other econometric methods. We envisage that that this will give us an improved baseline in the future.