The Apprenticeship Levy, was launched and championed by the government in 2017 as a way to improve the number of people gaining employment and qualifications, whilst helping to plug any skills gaps that may have resulted from Brexit.
Employers with a payroll of over £3m were required to contribute 0.5% of their payroll towards the levy, which would be kept for up to two years, and was to be spent on apprenticeship training.
Initial enthusiasm for the scheme had soon cooled, with employers criticising several elements of the program, such as employers not being able to find approved training which matched their business needs, or in some cases the training itself was more expensive than the allowance afforded to them by the Levy (at that time £15k).
By late 2018, the government had announced reforms to the scheme in order to promote it’s success - these included allowing up to 25% of companies’ levy to be spent on apprenticeships within their own supply chain, and further subsidising apprenticeship costs for small businesses so that they would be paying 5% rather than 10% as before.
In 2018, it was reported that employers had only spent 10% of their available apprenticeship levy - by early 2020, this had risen to 35% on a per month basis - so plenty of room for improvement! With this in mind, it seems clear that the coronavirus pandemic, alongside its self-isolation and lengthy furloughs, should be the perfect opportunity for more businesses to explore their options when it comes to apprenticeship training, and utilise this time for upskilling existing workforces.
“But wait!” we hear you cry - how can you undertake this training when education is so disrupted? The reality is, quite easily, once you have the right solution. It’s no coincidence that the EdTech sector is making leaps and bounds when it comes to adoption and use over the last year, and training providers, alongside so many other educational organisations, have been just as keen to adapt.
The reality is, if you don’t spend your accrued levy within 2 years, you lose it - So if you are looking to maximise the value from your levy, planning to create an internal programme yourself or simply don’t know where to start; we can help you identify your needs, solutions, and help link you to suitable providers.
Open eLMS is an online learning solution which is vastly improving learning delivery models and outcomes for a large number of organisations up and down the country. We are helping 1000s of people continue training in unprecedented circumstances - Get in touch to discuss how we can help you today
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