The Levy
If your organisation’s annual payroll bill exceeds £3 million per year, you will be paying into the Apprenticeship Levy each month. Are you getting the most of your Levy and utilising it for staff development?
At Yeovil College, we can advise you on how to make the most of the Levy for your or another organisation’s workforce.
The Apprenticeship Levy is a UK government initiative designed to fund Apprenticeship training. It applies to employers with an annual wage bill of over £3 million, who must contribute 0.5% of their total payroll to the levy. Each employer receives an annual allowance of £15,000, which is deducted from their levy payment. The funds are held in a digital Apprenticeship service (DAS) account and can be used to cover the costs of approved Apprenticeship training. Employers who do not pay the levy can still access funding, with the government covering 95-100% of Apprenticeship training costs for eligible businesses.
The team at Yeovil College are happy to help inform your plans to spend your levy, in conjunction with your organisation’s workforce development strategy. This can include spending your levy on upskilling existing staff members, equipping them with job specific qualifications and progressing them internally into higher roles, or attracting fresh new recruits to the organisation with college supported training. Upskilling existing staff through Apprenticeship training can improve productivity, staff retention and loyalty.
If you’re still struggling to spend your levy, you can transfer up to 50% of your levy funds each year to other businesses, to support with the cost of training and assessing their Apprentices. Transferring your levy could be a strategic decision to support those in your supply chain with the skills they need, supporting positive outcomes for your organisation’s operations. Alternatively, transferring unused levy funds to those within your community or specific skills areas is a great way to give something back and encourage collaboration between organisations and sectors. It’s easy to transfer your levy funds and we can advise you on how best to do this.
Mark Bolton, CEO & Principal, said: “Not all colleges and providers have the same approach as Yeovil College, and I would encourage any business to invest time in a phone call or face to face meeting to see which fits best with their business. I know that Yeovil College and colleagues at other colleges have worked incredibly hard to understand and respond to the Government’s changes. Yeovil College has thought about the changes from the perspective of our business partners and developed a collaborative way of working to maximise the benefit of the changes to our customers. If you’re not 100% clear about what it means for your company, spend 30 minutes on the telephone and start making a plan; a good training partner will do most of the hard work for you.”
Contact us for the latest information, on 01935 845392 or email apprenticeships@yeovil.ac.uk