Not Using Your Apprenticeship Levy? Let's Talk

Lots of employers have decided not to use their apprenticeship levy – some because apprenticeships aren’t for them (they employ lots of highly qualified staff, no-one needs an apprenticeship), others because it just seems like too much hassle. I get it, it’s your call, I’ll stop banging on about all of the great reasons you should get into apprenticeships to help your business, give someone a fabulous career opportunity and build transferable skills to help the UK economy.

Here’s the scenario – you’ve got a pot of cash that the government are holding on to for a specific purpose, but you can’t (or choose not to) use it yourself. What if I said you could give some of it to someone else? Maybe a favourite charity, perhaps a smaller business in your supply chain – you choose. I do a lot of work in the hospitality and care sectors, and I can think of a huge number of suppliers who could really do some of their customers a massive favour by using their levy to pay for an apprentice or two.

To put this into context, in April 2018 it was reported that the government were sitting on ￡1.28billion of unspent levy. Small and medium enterprises, those too small to pay the levy, were, until the change in apprenticeship funding in May 2017, the employers of the majority of England’s apprentices. Since the changes, apprentice numbers in SMEs have fallen off a cliff. This is a tragedy.

So - how about it? There’s a raft of advice on how you go about transferring some of your levy to another employer (here’s a link to the government guidance), or if that seems too big a job please contact me and I’ll get someone to help you.

You're welcome.