So, you think you can’t have an apprentice?

Think again! Apprenticeships can appear to be a complicated beast in a world that often seems alien to the everyday task of running your business. Which, let’s face it, is tough enough.

But, what if we told you that actually there is help available to help you navigate the murky waters and emerge with an upskilled workforce, bringing fresh talent and ideas to support your business to grow?

Luckily, that happens to be true and there is lots of help and support available for all businesses, both large and small. So, let’s start at the very beginning… a very good place to start!

What is apprenticeship levy?

Apprenticeship levy is money that is paid by large organisations (this is defined as those with a pay bill of over £3 million) into a ring-fenced ‘pot’ that can only be spent on apprenticeship training costs. If you’d like to know more, you can find out here.

This money can then be spent on:

• Offering a new apprenticeship vacancy (an additional member of staff for your business)
• Upskilling a current member of staff with an apprenticeship qualification.
• Transferring it to pay for the apprenticeship training costs for someone in another organisation.

As a small business, what are your options?

If you are a non-levy paying business, you can still access apprenticeship funding and all the benefits that come with upskilling your staff or bringing in a new team member.

You can apply to a levy-paying organisation to transfer the cost of the training. You would still pay the wages to your staff member and agree to release them for their training, but the rest is done by the apprenticeship provider (a training organisation) and the levy-paying business.

To transfer funds like this, you need to set up an account on the Digital Apprenticeship Service (DAS). You can find out about this here but there is a lot of help available to support you each step of the way.

Where to start…

• Find an apprenticeship provider. They will be able to guide you through all the other steps. If you know what course you would like your apprentice to study, you can search here for a training provider. However, you might also contact some training providers to help you choose which course is the best to do.
• Decide what apprenticeship qualification would you like your new or existing staff member to study for. There are thousands of apprenticeship standards and you can search them
• Your training provider will help you to set up your DAS account and support you to apply for apprenticeship levy from another organisation.
• Your training provider will help you to recruit for the role if it is a new vacancy.
• You will pay the staff members wage and release them for training (this could be online, around work, or them attending classes for up to one day per week)
• The training provider will deliver the qualification and complete all assessments.
• The levy-paying organisation will pay for the training costs by transferring their levy via the DAS system.

Help!

We have created a helpful booklet that has more details and links to help you get started with apprenticeships. You can view this here.

You can contact NELC and speak to their Skills lead about how to start apprenticeships within your business. Contact: amy.gresham@nelincs.gov.uk

NELC offer their own levy to transfer to other organisations and you can find out about this here.

Find a local provider and speak to them about their apprenticeship offer:

• TEC Partnership – goodgerk@tecpartnership.ac.uk
• Avant Skills Academy – Contact Us | Avant Skills Academy
• Lincs2 has contacts for all training providers across North East Lincolnshire.

To receive updates and training opportunities including future information events about apprenticeship levy and training options, you can sign up to the Invest NEL newsletter here.