The Apprenticeship Guide

What Is an Apprenticeship?

Apprenticeships are training programmes that combine workplace experience with off the job learning. They a great way to develop relevant skills of a new employee or improve your existing workforce. The apprentice will be learning and gaining experience 'on the job' alongside off the job activities, such as assessments, research, personal reflection and more formal classroom activities.
As an employer, you can become involved in apprenticeships by:

  • Recruiting an Apprentice
  • Up-skilling Existing Employees

The apprentice usually studies for a nationally recognised qualification at the same time as being employed for a minimum of one year and will be paid at least the National Minimum Wage for Apprentices for the duration of your apprenticeship programme.

A Change in Funding

In April 2017, the Government introduced changes to the way apprenticeships are funded that affect all businesses, whatever their size:

SME Businesses - Non Levy Funded (including most but not all General Practices across Herefordshire & Worcestershire)

If your annual wage or pay bill is less than £3 million, you will have to make a small financial contribution (currently 10%) towards the training costs of your apprentice. The Government will pick up the remaining 90%. In addition, you will have to pay the apprentice’s wage (a minimum of £3.50 per hour – increasing to £3.70 per hour from 1 April 2018).

For a useful Diagram of this please follow the link below;

https://www.skillsforcare.org.uk/Documents/Learning-and-development/Apprenticeships/Funding/A-non-levy-paying-employers-journey.pdf

Large Businesses - Levy Funded

If your annual wage or pay bill is more than £3 million, you will be required by Government to invest 0.5% of that amount as an Apprenticeship Levy. This will be collected by HMRC and kept in a digital account for you to use to pay for your apprentices’ training costs. This account can only be used to pay for the apprentices’ training costs and not for their salary or other employment costs.

Additional Government Incentives

Government incentives are available for both non-Levy and Levy paying employers to take on apprentices aged 16-18 or those aged 19-24 who were formerly in care or have an education, health and care plan.
There are additional incentives available for small-medium sized businesses that employ fewer than 50 people.

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Apprenticeships

Non-Levy Apprenticeship Providers