Why aren’t you using the apprenticeship Levy?

Currently there are billions of unused apprenticeship levy funds sitting in the government accounts and there are some key reasons as to why its not being used.

in this article we’re going to look at them together and i can give you the facts to help you utilise your levy better.

Let’s get rid of some of the misconceptions about apprenticeships

They are not just for school leavers; your existing staff can benefit from a whole load of structured training and development. Some of these include but are not limited to; business admin, sales executive, supervisor/team leader, motor finance practitioner and assessor/coach to name a few.

As you can see from the small list above, it isn’t just technical roles. Yes your apprenticeship levy is a great way to provide technical skills and its a great way to bring school leavers into your business. However it can be a great way to attract, develop and retain talent; giving your people career pathways and your business a robust succession plan for every role. All funded through your apprenticeship levy.

If you have a payroll over ￡3 million, you’ll be paying 0.5% into the levy pot to use for all of the above. The government tops this contribution up each month with an extra 10% to give you and extra incentive to use it. Sounds great if your paying to the levy doesn’t it? So what happens if you haven’t got a payroll bill of ￡3 million?

Smaller Budget?

Don’t worry you can still use the apprenticeship levy, plus it’s no where near as hard to do as you might think.

First you set up a digital account on DAS (the digital apprenticeship service). Next find an approved apprenticeship provider. You agree a price for the apprenticeship program, and then pay 5% of the fee commercially to the provider. The government will pay the provider the additional 95%.

So for example:

Operations Manager apprenticeship at level 5 has a maximum funding of ￡7,000 per apprentice

If you wanted to put 10 of your managers through this apprenticeship it could cost ￡70,000. However, as a small employer of under ￡3 million payroll, you only need to pay 5% of this (￡3,500) and the government will pay the rest.

That’s 24 months of leadership development, as part of a structured program, for 10 managers, for ￡3,500 !!

And there is the fact that once your mangers complete the program, they are all Charterd Managers. How can you afford not to do it?

This model is called co-funding.

If you have less than 50 employees, you can apply to access the government list for fully funded provision for apprenticeships.

That’s right, fully funded!

You didn’t know that did you?

So it isn’t hard to set up. In most cases you’ve got to pay the money anyway. You can use it for school leavers, existing staff, graduates, technical and non-technical roles.

Why on earth is there still billions of this funding unused?

Well unfortunately apprenticeship training is not very popular amongst L&D teams and HR Director.

They see an off the shelf “one size fits all” product and feel that it’s not right for their goals or their business needs. A lot of apprenticeship providers don't bespoke their apprenticeship programs to what a company needs, they make them to the apprenticeship trailblazer standard and then sell it to every one and every business gets the same training.

Businesses also don’t have the resource to do all of the follow up activity to make sure their people stay on track with the apprenticeship.

This is one of the biggest reasons why companies only use apprenticeship levy funds for technical roles. Because technical apprenticeship providers specialise in the ‘technical’ area and can do all of the training and follow up.

When it comes to management, leadership and sales its a different matter; who’s making sure its practically applied back at work? Who’s following up? Who has the resource? And the outcome, a lack of progress, awareness and understanding. The apprentice ends up either failing the end point assessment or they come off the apprenticeship altogether.

But it can be different

There are companies out there (of which Eos Learn is one) who have the ability to look at a company’s goals and needs, then look at an apprenticeship trailblazer standard and marry the two. This means you can create a bespoke program for the individual business that matches the apprenticeship standards

So if you want to provide your administration teams with training that helps them to better support customers and be more efficient, use your apprenticeship levy and look at customer service or business administration programs.

Work in the motor trade or a finance house? Look at the motor finance practitioner program.

What if you want your managers to be coaches and help the next generation of talent? Use your apprenticeship levy and put them through the assessor/coach program.

But most importantly please don’t waste your money. It’s hard earned and after 24 month, if its not used, it expires and you lose it.

For free, no obligation advice feel free to get in touch with me directly and I’ll help you make the most of your money.