It’s quite easy to be put off Apprenticeships when you hear the word ‘Levy’ but the word is no longer just a word for tax. In fact, the Apprenticeship Levy is essentially a big pot of money that companies can use to train their staff to enhance their staff and their business. The problem though is that only 13 per cent of the government’s apprenticeship budget was spent last year, resulting in thousands of employers missing out.
The beauty of Apprentices is their near endless range of qualifications. Almost every industry is covered and making it accessible in some way to every Levy paying company in the UK.
Below are six ways UK businesses can benefit from the Apprenticeship Levy:
1. if you’re not a levy-paying business, you can use the Government’s co-investment rate. Under this rate, the Government will pay 95 per cent of the training and assessment costs. This will help small and growing businesses whilst providing their staff with training to enhance their education.
2. Employ a 16 to 18-year-old: The government will give a £1,000 grant to employ people aged between 16 and 18 and for businesses that employ fewer than 50 staff that take on a 16 to 18-year-old apprentice, the Government will fund 100 per cent of the training costs.
3. Apprenticeship rules state that 20 per cent of an apprentice’s time should be spent on “off-the-job” training. Don’t let this put you off. This time doesn’t have to be spent off-site in a classroom. In fact it can cover a range of activities such as practical training, theory-based learning and special assignments.
4. The Apprentice won’t be the only one learning: The learning from Apprenticeships isn’t just contained to the person on the scheme as lots of different stakeholders have the opportunity to learn too. Line managers and leaders may need to manage apprentices differently to get the best out of them. Skills such as coaching and mentoring are fundamental to making a successful apprenticeship, but other skills such as developing confidence and resilience in apprentices are important and will mean the difference between your apprentices adding substantial value to your business or being a burden on resources.
5. Apprenticeships are a nod to the future: You can use apprentices to spot and develop future leaders for your business. This also applies to existing staff, as the Apprenticeship Levy funds can be used for training people of all ages. For people just starting their career, an apprenticeship can expose them to different functions of your business to give them the broad understanding that leaders need, and for existing staff you can develop their qualifications
6. Use apprenticeships as a tool for workforce planning. You’ll need to consider what skills your apprentices will need as they progress – so setting milestones and timelines is important for levy payers
Technique Apprenticeships and how we can help
Technique Learning Solutions are proud of our training background, so much so that last year we were accepted on to the ROTAP (Register Of Apprentice Training Providers) list and have began to put our training stamp the Apprenticeship market.
We offer a number of Apprenticeship schemes that tie in with our engineering and business expertise. The courses are the following:
- Building Services Engineering Installer (Level 2)
- Building Services Engineering Craftsperson (Level 3)
- Fire Emergency & Security Systems Technician (Level 3)
- Maintenance & Operations Engineering Technician (Level 3)
- Refrigeration Air Conditioning & Heat Pump Engineering Technician (Level 3)
- Installation Electrician / Maintenance Electrician (Level 3)
- Associate Project Manager (Level 4)
- Team Leader Supervisor (Level 3)
- Business Administrator (Level 3)
- Customer Service Practitioner (Level 2)
For more information on these standards or to talk in greater detail about how Technique can help you, feel free to give us a call on 01246802222 or email Apprenticeships@Learntechnique.com
Original Source (has been edited): https://www.businessupnorth.co.uk/six-ways-employers-can-use-the-apprenticeship-levy-to-their-advantage/
