Is the apprenticeship levy still on track after Brexit?
“If anything, the referendum result means that a skilled British workforce will be needed more than ever, so the target of three million apprenticeship starts by 2020 takes on a new significance.”
Mark Dawe, Chief Executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (AELP) at the Association’s annual conference.
Whatever the labour market looks like post-EU, organisations are already investing in future skills and productivity with Higher and Degree Apprenticeships.
Uni@Work attended the AELP conference last week, where Nick Boles MP, Minister for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) declared: “We should all continue to assume and work on the assumption that the apprenticeship levy is coming in, as planned.”
And Nadhim Zahawi MP, the Prime Minister’s Apprenticeship Adviser, asserted that the “apprenticeship levy and the enhancement of our nation’s skills is a central government policy, and this will continue to be the case.”
The Levy – Key facts
- Employers in any sector with a pay bill of more than £3 million a year are liable to pay the apprenticeship levy.
- The levy will be charged at a rate of 0.5% of the annual pay bill.
- The levy will be paid to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) through the Pay as You Earn (PAYE) process.
- Once the levy is paid to HMRC, the employer can access funding for apprenticeships through a new digital apprenticeship service account.
- Government will top up the levy with an additional 10%.
- This can be used to pay for training and assessment for apprentices in England.
- Use it or lose it – funds will expire 18 months after they enter the employer’s digital account unless they are spent on apprenticeship training.
- The digital apprenticeship service will also help find training providers to assist employers with development and delivery of apprenticeship programmes.
- All employers, whether or not they are required to pay the levy, will be able to use the digital apprenticeship service to pay for training and assessment for apprenticeships by 2020.
Uni@Work will continue to support the employers with whom we are already working, as well as our new and potential clients.
Claire Buckland, Head of Uni@Work, is the Apprenticeships Ambassador for the Coventry University Group. If there is anything you want to know about Apprenticeships and/or the levy, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
Check back next week for a further update, following an expected announcement from BIS.