Apprenticeship Levy Funds soon at risk

Graham Howe – Executive Director

We are approaching 8 months until employers start to lose their unspent Apprenticeship Levy to HMRC. Though many employers didn’t want to rush into spending their Apprenticeship Levy given the 2 year window, it is clear now is the time. Over the last 12-15 months, evidence suggests it takes 3-5 months for most employers to agree their training programmes, undertake marketing to their workforce and then logistically plan the courses. Furthermore, the longer an employer leaves it the more likely they will lose money to HMRC as the training they need doesn’t match their monthly Levy fees.

I recently looked at a scenario with an employer paying approximately £20k per month into the Apprenticeship Levy and hasn’t yet spent any of it, even with a plan to train 50 staff on Team Leading, Project Management and Operational Apprenticeship Standards (starting in Nov 2018 to March 2019) they would lose £70k to HMRC in 2019/20.

This posed another question, what if an employer has its Apprenticeship Levy sat on its Company Balance Sheet as an asset? It is entirely plausible that external auditors would not recognise the asset if there wasn’t a plan in place to use the funds to develop their workforce.

There are also those employers that are seeing the Apprenticeship Levy as an extension of their training budget, planning training as part of an overall Workforce Development Strategy where Apprenticeship Standards play an important role for both new recruits and those new to their role.

If now is the time to plan how the Apprenticeship Levy can be used in your overall training plans, can I propose you speak to the Quantet Group. With a recognised Apprenticeship Training Provider, a commercial training company and e-training solutions we can meet most of your needs.

As in the example above, we can provide a detailed financial plan on how an Apprenticeship Levy budget can be utilised, and we offer training in the following Apprenticeship Standards:

• Customer Service Practitioner (Level 2)
• Customer service Specialist (Level 3)
• Business Administrator (Level 3)
• Team Leader (Level 3)
• Improvement Technician (Level 3)
• Improvement Practitioner (Level 4)
• Associate Project Manager (Level 4)
• Operational/Departmental Manager (Level 5)

This year Ofsted said the following about our Apprenticeship programmes with employers:

“Managers spend time with employers prior to enrolling apprentices to help them to understand the employers’ priorities for training and also the culture of the employer in order to adapt training materials appropriately.”

“As a result of well-organised teaching, training and assessment, most apprentices make at least good progress and achieve the milestones that their skills coaches have planned for them. Most apprentices enjoy group training sessions where they benefit from meeting other employees from different parts of their organisation.”

“Apprentices make good progress in acquiring important practical and vocational skills which are relevant to their qualification and job role; their skills coaches support them in doing this effectively.”

If you would like to discuss your situation further please contact graham@quantetgroup.com or call me on 07989 595538.