Apprenticeship Update, July 2019
At West Nottinghamshire College we are committed to working in partnership with employers to develop the workforce of the future. A significant part of this is through the delivery of Apprenticeships.
It is good to note a gradual and accelerating recovery in apprenticeship numbers after the significant reductions that were seen after the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy in May 2017.
However, as employers increase their demands for new apprenticeships, we at West Nottinghamshire College, like all training providers, are having to work hard to keep up with demand as funding to support non-levy payers has been capped by the Government. This is particularly restrictive for us in relation to apprentices aged 19 and over. Nevertheless, we are passionate about supporting small and medium sized enterprises to develop the skills of their current and future workforce and we are determined that a cap on funding will not stand in our way.
Therefore, we are working closely with our levy paying partners to encourage them to sponsor development or growth in their communities by ‘sharing’ their unused levy funds with other businesses. Since May, levy paying employers who have not fully used their levy payments have begun to see funds ‘expire’ in their digital accounts. This money simply passes to the treasury as if it were a tax. ￡37 million has expired in the last two months. The only way to stop this happening is to use the funds to pay for apprenticeships. If it is not possible for a levy-paying business to spend all of their levy account on their own apprentices, then we can support them to transfer some of this money to other businesses in the local area.
We’ve already had some really positive conversations with levy payers and are hoping to transfer some levy funds in the coming weeks. However, it would be really helpful to have more of these conversations so that we can support as many local small and medium sized businesses as possible.
If you are a levy paying employer and would like to discuss how you can support smaller businesses in your community, or if you are a smaller employer who works closely with a levy payer who you believe may not be using all of their levy funds, please contact me by email in the first instance [email protected] and we'll do everything we can to initiate and support these conversations