The Benefits of Offering Apprenticeships
Apprenticeships offer significant advantages to both employers and individuals. They enhance productivity by improving the skills of the workforce. An apprenticeship combines a real job with structured, recognised training and can be used to upskill existing staff or recruit and train new employees.
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There are range of apprenticeship standards for many different industry sectors and availability for businesses of all sizes across England. Our Employment 4 All Training Provider Partners offer government funded apprenticeship training across a wide range of occupational apprenticeship standards. They can assist with accessing the government funding available for training apprentices and will collaborate closely with both employer and apprentice to ensure that the apprenticeship offered is the most suitable for the individual’s job role, while also reflecting individual employer and apprentice needs.
Most of the training takes place on the job, with a mentor guiding the apprentice to learn job-specific skills in the workplace. Apprentices will need to be released by the employer to complete a minimum of 6 hours per week training that is away from their normal duties. Apprentices complete an End Point Assessment (EPA) at the end of their programme and this is a check that they have the knowledge, skills and behaviours to perform the occupation confidently and competently to the recognised industry standard.
Apprentices and employers will also benefit from a range of additional support and training to upskill their digital, English and maths skills as part of the apprenticeship.
Depending on the size of the business, apprenticeships can be funded up to 100% of the cost of training. Incentive payments are available to businesses that recruit apprentices that are under 19 years of aged when they start.
Apprenticeships are available at various levels, ranging from Intermediate (Level 2) to Degree (Level 6 and 7). The duration of the apprenticeship will depend on the standard chosen, but the minimum duration is 12 months.
Key benefits of apprenticeships include:
- Earn while you learn
- Upskill your existing workforce
- Cost-effective recruitment
- Increased staff retention and loyalty
- Attract enthusiastic talent that increased productivity and innovation
- Tackle skill shortages
- Tailored to specific job roles
- Government funding available
- Increase employee satisfaction
- Provide skilled workers for business growth, create a talent pipeline
- Enhanced business reputation
Newly recruited apprentices are paid an apprenticeship wage for the first year and then the national minimum wage for their age.
Recruiting an Apprentice
We believe hiring apprentices is a great and effective recruitment method, offering a fantastic lower cost opportunity to hire and develop someone into a specific role.
Offering apprenticeships demonstrates you are a company that cares about personal development and it increases staff motivation and engagement leading to improved retention of employees. Employees are able to learn new skills whilst working, leading to career progression through practical experience and qualifications.
Employment 4 All can help with recruiting apprentices:
- Advertising and sourcing of candidates
- Shortlisting of applicants – based on funding, experience and match to role.
- Arranging interviews
- Running open days as part of the recruitment process in order to screen the candidates.
- Provide initial assessment to establish suitability to role and course.
- Refer you to a training partner to gain funding for suitable candidates.
Funding
Levy Account
Training and development is an essential part of any business and is key to its success and sustained performance. Choosing how to pay for this can be a minefield,
Levy Paying Employers
Our trusted training provider partners are registered main providers of apprenticeships and our courses can be paid for via your Digital Apprenticeship Service account (DAS).
All UK employers who have a total employee PAYE bill of over £3 million a year have started paying an additional monthly compulsory tax of 0.5% of the PAYE bill from the 1st April 2017.
For organisations that are subject to this apprenticeship levy you are automatically entitled to a £15,000 allowance, each year. So, when the levy is calculated you don’t pay the first £15,000. The funds will expire after 24 months of entering the DAS account.
As an example,
Annual PAYE bill £6 million x 0.5 = £30,000
Less the levy allowance of £15,000
Leaving annual levy of £15,000 (paid in monthly installments monthly in to your digital account) plus a government top up of 10%
Leaving a total of £16,500 per year to pay for apprenticeship training.
As funds are added into the digital apprenticeship service account (DAS) each month at 0.5% of the PAYE bill, it automatically gains a 10% top up from the government.
Apprenticeships are paid for monthly from your digital account, over the duration of the course, and cannot be paid in a lump sum. This means to utilise the full levy fund courses need to be started as quickly as you can so that the monthly payments have time to accumulate and reach the full amount before the funds expire. Any expired funds will be claimed by the government as a tax, to be used to help fund the “co-funded” training in other companies
Non-Levy Paying Employers (SME’s)
- Employers that are not paying the levy, due to their size can access government funding to cover up to 100% of the apprenticeship training costs.
- Some employers will be expected to contribute 5% towards the cost of the apprenticeship. This will depend on the size of the company and the age of the apprentice at the start of the programme.
- Our training partners will be able to provide you with more information on the cost your business and the incentives available to you.