February 16 2026

Graham Vidler is CPT Chief Executive

Ten years can go by in a flash. A decade ago, recruitment in our industry hit a pivotal moment – the Government published its official apprenticeship standard for bus and coach drivers in England.

That standard, drafted in March 2016 and implemented the following year, paved the way for thousands of bus and coach drivers to “earn while they learn”, with courses part funded by the Apprenticeship Levy. And that’s opened up a whole new route into working in our industry.

Driving apprenticeships, under the present rules, must be at least eight months long, involving 326 hours of learning through a mixture of classroom and other off-the-job activity. They each receive up to £8,000 of levy funding.

They’ve unlocked opportunity for thousands of people – not just young people leaving school, but career switchers at all stages in life who want to learn a new trade too. Along the way, many apprentices are taught basic skills in English and maths.

The industry has benefited markedly. Apprenticeships have provided a structured pathway to bring in new recruits – which has been valuable, for example, in tackling the driver shortages of recent years.

The use of apprenticeships has helped early career retention in an industry which has long suffered from high turnover. And fundamentally, the apprenticeship standard has made training content more consistent, with clear expectations of competence at every step of the way.  

In the last year alone, 806 bus and coach drivers began apprenticeships in England, and 602 graduated. Once confined to larger operators, the apprenticeship pathway has gradually been adopted by more in our industry – although the paperwork involved can still be a barrier to SMEs. Many bus companies report that the system has improved diversity, helping them to look beyond the traditional demographic of bus drivers, and has enhanced aspiration in the industry.

There are, for sure, some gripes. The inflexibility of apprenticeship rules has been an issue. It takes a feat of organisation to ensure that drivers on shift patterns in their depots can be made available at the appropriate times for classroom training.

And the bureaucracy around apprenticeships is notorious – there’s a multiple stage process involved in accrediting and claiming funding for each individual candidate. Those companies which choose to provide teaching in-house are subject to assessment by Ofsted.  CPT supplier member, Realise Training, can help employers navigate all of this.

In terms of skills, it’s a demanding task to manoeuvre a 10 tonne vehicle around rush hour streets with up to 80 people on board, while issuing tickets, keeping in touch with a depot and dodging errant cyclists. Nevertheless, all the evidence is that over ten years, apprenticeships have benefited our industry, and that they continue to do so.

It’s worth bearing in mind that the bus and coach industry is a huge employer overall: around 108,000 work on the buses across the UK, and a further 54,000 are employed by coach operators.

Under the levy system devised by David Cameron’s Government, any employer with a pay bill of more than £3 million annually is required to contribute 0.5% of their payroll to the Apprenticeship Levy – so all of our larger operators are paying into the system, like it or not.

The existence of an officially recognised standard for driver apprenticeships enables them to draw down those contributions, with a top-up in public funding, to train their workforce. Without driver apprenticeships, those companies would be marooned with a pointless and punitive tax going out and no clear way to access the money for their largest employee category.

So long may it continue. For every graduating driver this year – I offer my warmest congratulations. And to each employer with the patience and ingenuity to offer apprenticeships – thank you for helping to make buses and coaches an appealing and engaging  choice of career.