The Apprenticeship Levy is coming

Nov 30, 2016

From 1 May 2017, any business with a payroll of £3 million or more will be required  to pay a new tax called The Apprenticeship Levy regardless of whether they employ apprentices or not. They will have to pay 0.5% of their total payroll figure in to a levy to the Government. They will be able to recover this figure by providing training to existing and new apprentices. This apprentice training can be at any level providing it is required developmental training and fits within the apprenticeship frameworks outlined by the Government. This new tax is an admirable attempt by the Government to train 3m new apprentices by 2020 and is aimed at filling the skills gap in certain areas of business in the UK, bringing us closer to those found in other developed countries.

This could be quite a burden for an employer and there is no guarantee that they will recoup the figure that they pay in. It is therefore essential that the quality of the training not only meets requirements but goes further by providing incredible learning experiences and retained knowledge thereby giving greater ROI in terms of skills and expertise to the company.

In this regard, the new levy could be seen not as a potential burden or obstacle but as a fantastic opportunity. It is a chance to provide systematic training that will increase staff morale, motivation and productivity and ultimately retain the best talent if framed in the right way. This is only possible with a top down positive attitude to the training and by working with the right training partner.

The Apprenticeship Levy will obviously change the way that employers perceive and target new employees. If they are paying in to the levy then they will be reviewing their training processes for new recruits and how they can use for existing staff training too. This may involve reviiewing their training provider/s or even applying to be a registered training provider themselves through the scheme. This will then give them the option of using their existing provider as a sub contractor under new rules outlined by the government who want to promote employer led choice. The sub contractor option will therefore allow them to access the money that they have paid in to the levy without having to use a brand new untested supplier or provider that is not aligned to their business. 

One of our original clients of over 18 years are currently planning their training for the coming year. The levy presents an additional consideration and we have been asked to work with them to ensure that their overall training objectives are met throughout the organisation whilst also providing the required training in accordance with the apprenticeship framework.

In addition to our blended learning programmes, they will be using the iManage Academy to augment the framework with additional hours of training across a range of associated areas. Aside from satisfying the Government's apprenticeship needs, this will have the additional benefit of providing staff with an engaging broad learning experience and access to a rich resource of training materials as well as a community of likeminded people.

The client currently has over 5000 employees which represents a very large monthly payroll so they have taken the decision to register as a provider of training themselves and bringing us in as a trusted subcontractor.

In addition to traditonal face to face training and e-learning we will also be using the iManage Academy which meets aprrenticehip framework criteria.

The Academy is an ongoing iterative experience that builds on a weekly basis. The Government have suggested that such courses will take between 12 months to 2.5 years so the Academy is positively contributing to the weight of content required. The iManage Academy content can contribute to the Apprenticeship Standards for Team Leader /  Supervisor, Operations / Departmental Manager. An example of how our Performance Management content in the Academy fits within the prescribed published frameworks can be seen here.

All content within the Academy has the added benefit of being endorsed by the Chartered Management institute (CMI) with users offered certification on completion of the course.

If you are lan organisation looking for advice in the provision of training through the Apprenticeship Levy or you are looking for a blended training specialist that can offer a complete solution either as a main supplier or sub contractor then contact us today.

Why not access the free iManage Academy toolkit to get a taste of the content and features?