Getting the best out of the Apprenticeship Levy

In April 2017, the Apprenticeship Levy was introduced to ensure that there was a long-term investment in apprenticeship training: enabling employers to plug skills gaps, recruit new talent and improve the abilities of their current and future staff through work-based learning. 

Under the levy, large employers – those with a pay bill of more than £3m – will pay 0.5% of their total wage bill to invest in training staff through apprenticeships. Smaller employers don’t have to pay into the levy but do have to contribute 10% of the cost of an apprenticeship – with the government making up the other 90%.

However, it would be impossible to deny that the rollout has been problem free. Some firms think it is a tax on them.

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Learning | The School of Life

There are difficult stats too. In the first year of its introduction, only 10% of the government’s ring-fenced apprenticeship budget was used. There was even a fall in the number of apprentices in the first quarter.