If you’ve recruited an Assessor, Skills Coach or Business Development Manager recently and thought “we didn’t have to pay that two years ago”, you’re probably right.
At National Skills Agency, we have a unique view of the apprenticeship and training recruitment market. We speak to training providers, colleges and sector organisations every day, while at the same time talking to the people they are trying to recruit.
And one thing has become increasingly clear during 2026:
The market rate for good people has moved.
Not necessarily dramatically in every role or every specialism, but sufficiently that salary expectations from 2024 can now leave employers struggling to attract the candidates they really want.
What has actually happened to salaries?
Looking back at the market two years ago, a fairly typical apprenticeship Trainer/Assessor or Skills Coach vacancy would often sit somewhere around £28,000–£32,000.
By 2025, we were increasingly seeing experienced candidates looking for £30,000–£35,000+.
In 2026, £35,000–£40,000 is becoming increasingly common for experienced Skills Coaches, particularly where the role involves higher-level programmes, specialist occupational knowledge or greater responsibility.
That doesn’t mean every Assessor is suddenly earning £40,000.
There are still plenty of roles around £27,000–£32,000, particularly in some lower-level or less specialist areas.
But the upper end has unquestionably moved.
| Role | 2024 | 2025 | 2026 |
| Assessor / Skills Coach | £28k–£32k | £30k–£35k | £32k–£40k |
| Specialist / higher-level Coach | £32k–£38k | £35k–£42k | £38k–£45k+ |
| Apprenticeship BDM | £30k–£35k + comms | £35k–£40k + comms | £38k–£50k + comms |
| Strong/Senior BDM | £35k–£40k + comms | £40k–£45k + comms | £45k–£55k+ + comms |
As a broad guide to what we are seeing:
These are broad market observations rather than rigid salary bands – geography, sector, targets, caseloads and programme specialism can make a significant difference.
Business Development has seen an even bigger shift
This is probably the area where we have noticed the biggest change.
A few years ago, £30,000–£35,000 plus commission could attract a very credible apprenticeship BDM.
Today, an experienced BDM with a genuine network, a track record of generating apprenticeship starts and the ability to open conversations with levy employers can command considerably more.
Current vacancies demonstrate just how far the market has stretched.
We are now regularly seeing apprenticeship BDM roles around £35,000–£45,000 basic, with some positions at £45,000–£55,000 and realistic OTEs reaching £60,000–£70,000+.
So why has it changed?
Good apprenticeship salespeople have become incredibly valuable
Training providers don’t simply need someone who can “sell”.
They need someone who understands apprenticeships.
That distinction is important.
A strong apprenticeship BDM needs to understand funding, the levy, employer needs, different standards, procurement processes and often quite lengthy sales cycles.
They also need to be capable of talking credibly to HR Directors, L&D teams, operational managers and senior decision makers.
Most importantly, they need to turn those conversations into starts and revenue.
There simply aren’t enough proven people who can consistently do that.
When several providers are trying to recruit from essentially the same talent pool, salaries inevitably move upwards.
Assessors and Skills Coaches have changed too
The Assessor role of today is also very different from the traditional Assessor role of ten years ago.
Many employers now expect their delivery staff to be:
Trainer + Coach + Assessor + Mentor + Employer Relationship Manager + Compliance Expert.
They need to engage learners remotely, understand funding and compliance, manage progress, work closely with employers, prepare apprentices for EPA and increasingly deliver higher-level and more technical programmes.
That is a much broader skillset.
And candidates know it.
Specialist knowledge carries a premium
There is also no such thing as one “Assessor salary” anymore.
Someone delivering a relatively common Level 3 programme sits in a very different labour market from someone capable of delivering programmes in:
- Data and AI
- Cyber
- Engineering
- Electrical
- Construction
- Accountancy
- Leadership and Management at higher levels
- Financial Services
In many of these areas, training providers aren’t only competing against other training providers.
They’re competing with industry.
If an experienced engineer, accountant, data professional or commercial manager can earn significantly more by remaining in industry, the training sector must make the move into education financially attractive.
That inevitably pushes salaries upwards.
Remote working changed the recruitment market
Remote and hybrid working have also had an interesting effect.
Initially, remote delivery appeared to give employers access to a much larger candidate pool.
And it did.
But it also gave candidates access to a much larger employer pool.
A Skills Coach living in Manchester is no longer necessarily comparing three local training providers.
They could be comparing opportunities with providers based in London, Birmingham, Bristol or anywhere else in the country.
That creates a much more transparent national salary market.
Employers are no longer simply competing with the provider down the road.
They can be competing with every provider in the UK.
Candidates are looking beyond salary
There is another important point.
Salary gets a candidate interested, but increasingly it isn’t what ultimately gets them to accept.
For Assessors and Skills Coaches, we hear questions such as:
What’s the caseload?
How much admin is involved?
How much travel will I actually be doing?
Is it genuinely remote?
What are learner achievement rates like?
What support will I receive?
For BDMs it tends to be:
What’s the target?
How is commission calculated?
When is it paid?
Do I receive any leads?
Is there an existing employer base?
How competitive is the proposition I’m selling?
A £37,000 Skills Coach position with a sensible caseload can therefore be considerably more attractive than a £40,000 position with an unrealistic one.
Likewise, a BDM may choose a £42,000 basic with an achievable commission structure over £48,000 with an impossible target.
The cost of getting salary wrong
This is where employers sometimes make a false economy.
Imagine budgeting £32,000 for a role where the strongest candidates are now looking for £36,000–£38,000.
You can absolutely continue advertising at £32,000.
But you may spend three months interviewing candidates who aren’t quite right, paying for advertising, asking managers to cover vacancies and potentially putting additional pressure on existing staff.
The £4,000–£6,000 saving suddenly doesn’t look quite so attractive.
The same principle applies to sales.
Paying an additional £5,000 basic salary for a BDM who can genuinely generate hundreds of thousands of pounds of apprenticeship revenue is not really an additional cost.
It’s an investment in revenue generation.
Our advice to employers
Don’t automatically increase every salary.
But do benchmark every vacancy against today’s market rather than the salary you paid the previous person.
Those can be two very different numbers.
Look at the complete proposition: salary, bonus, flexibility, caseload, targets, benefits, progression and culture.
And if you find a genuinely outstanding candidate, recognise that the difference between securing them and losing them can sometimes be only a few thousand pounds.
Recruitment in the apprenticeship and training sector remains a specialist market.
The best people generally know their value – and increasingly, so do their existing employers.
Need a salary sense-check?
National Skills Agency works exclusively across the Apprenticeship, Training, FE, Awarding, EPAO and wider Skills sectors.
Because we’re speaking to employers and candidates every day, we can provide a real-time view of what organisations are offering and what candidates are actually prepared to move for.
If you’re recruiting and want to know whether your salary is competitive, talk to NSA before you go to market.
Sometimes a five-minute conversation at the beginning can save five weeks of recruitment later.