APPRENTICESHIP FUNDING

If you are an employer with a pay bill of over £3 million each year, you will pay into the Apprenticeship Levy. This means you will have an apprenticeship levy fund that is already ringfenced for training costs.

For smaller businesses who do not pay the Apprenticeship Levy, the Government will contribute 95% towards the cost of apprenticeship training, with employers topping up the last 5% as a co-investment payment.

For eligible SMEs with under 50 employees, the Government can fund 100% of training costs if the apprentice is aged 16-18. This also applies for apprentices aged 19-24 with an EHC plan from their local authority.

For all employers, cash grants of £1000 are currently available to take on an apprentice aged 16-18. This also applies for apprentices aged 19-24 with an EHC plan from their local authority.

Our recruitment process is completely free! For employers, the only costs of hiring an apprentice are wages and training costs. Training costs depend on the size of your business, and government funding is available.

The cost of our programmes ranges from £11,000 – £18,000, however, the government will fund between 95-100% of this if you do not pay into the Apprenticeship Levy. For businesses that do not pay into the Apprenticeship Levy, the government will fund 100% of the cost of apprenticeship training for apprentices aged 16 – 21 and 95% for apprentices 22 and over.

If you pay into the Apprenticeship Levy, the cost of the programme will be paid in monthly instalments using your Levy funds.

The current National Apprentice Minimum Wage is £6.40 an hour (as of April 2024), regardless of age. For apprentices aged 19 or over, this is raised to the National Minimum Wage for their age group after the first year of training.

We recommend paying more than the National Apprentice Minimum Wage, as a higher wage recognises the value that apprentices bring to an organisation, promotes loyalty and will boost job satisfaction.

If you are an employer with a pay bill of over £3 million each year, you will pay into the Apprenticeship Levy. This means you will have an apprenticeship levy fund that is already ringfenced for training costs.

For smaller businesses that do not pay the Apprenticeship Levy, the Government will fund 100% of the cost of apprenticeship training for apprentices aged 16 – 21 and 95% for apprentices 22 and over.

For eligible SMEs with under 50 employees, the Government can fund 100% of training costs if the apprentice is aged 19-24 with an EHC plan from their local authority.

For all employers, cash grants of £1000 are currently available to take on an apprentice aged 16-18. This also applies to apprentices aged 19-24 with an EHC plan from their local authority.

Apprenticeships in England are funded through two primary routes: The Apprenticeship Levy and Government Co-Investment. The Apprenticeship Levy applies to large organisations, while Co-investment is available to SMEs.

Alongside these funding mechanisms, there are also a range of apprenticeship grants for employers who meet certain conditions.

If your business has a salary bill of less than £3 million, you will not contribute to the Apprenticeship Levy. Instead, you will be able to claim government co-investment towards the costs of apprenticeship training.

As an employer, you will pay only 5% of your apprentice’s training and assessment fees, while the Government contribute 95%.

If you have less than 50 employees and your new apprentice is aged between 16-18, the government will waive the 5% contribution, covering 100% of training costs.

The majority of apprenticeship funding is administered via the digital Apprenticeship Service. This is a government-operated system where employers can register apprentices, apply for national funding schemes, and search for other employers with Levy Funds to share.

Many local councils or combined Authorities also offer grants for hiring apprentices, or run their own levy transfer schemes.

The Apprenticeship Levy is a ringfenced fund for large employers intended to encourage investment in apprenticeship training. If your organisation has an annual salary bill of over £3 million, you will pay into an Apprenticeship Levy fund.

Employers who pay the levy contribute 0.5% of their salary bill. The Apprenticeship Levy can be used to pay for training costs of new apprentices, or to enrol existing staff on professional development apprenticeships.

Your levy funds can be used to pay for apprenticeship training and assessment costs. However, this does not include other costs associated with apprenticeships such as wages, travel expenses or equipment!

You can use your Apprenticeship Levy funds to recruit new talent across your business, this is a cost-effective way to make sure you protect your organisation from skills gaps and a competitive candidate market.

Your levy funds can also be used to train and develop your current employees – from juniors up to senior management. Whether you have a team member who is looking to upskill and advance in their career, or looking to reskill and move into a different department – our team can help.

If you’re a business in England with an annual salary bill of over £3 million – then you will pay into the Apprenticeship Levy. If your company is part of a group under shared ownership, you’ll likely have one shared levy pot between all organisations in the group.

You can access your funds through your Digital Apprenticeship Service account. If you don’t have an account, you’ll need to create one prior to your apprentice being enrolled on their programme as it’s a mandatory requirement.

This online service will allow you to financially manage your apprenticeship programmes and help you to estimate your financial spend.

You can see funds appear in your digital account monthly, a few working days after you have confirmed your salary bill and levy contribution to HRMC for the previous month. You can then use the account to set up apprenticeships and authorise payments to training providers.

If you run out of levy funds, the remaining training costs for that month will come out of the ‘co-investment’ model. This means that the government will fund 95% of any outstanding costs, and you will need to cover the remaining 5%.

Levy funds expire 24 months after they enter your account unless you spend them on apprenticeship training. Levy spend will be applied on a first in, first out basis and applies to any government top-ups in your digital account.

For example, if you started paying into the levy in April 2019 and you haven’t spent any of the funds, they will start to expire on a rolling monthly basis starting from April 2021.

Yes, Levy transfers can be used to cover the costs of apprenticeship training, particularly for medium-sized businesses who do not always qualify for 100% funding support.

Yes, we can! If your organisation has Apprenticeship Levy funds due to expire, our team can help you transfer these funds and generate much-needed apprenticeship opportunities.

Please get in touch with our team to get the process started.

If you are taking on an apprentice who has previously been in care, there are some additional funds to be aware of.

Care leavers who go onto an apprenticeship programme could be eligible to receive a bursary of £1000.

Employers could also claim additional funding of £1000 if an apprentice is aged between 19 and 24 years old and has either an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan, or has been in the care of their local authority.