How to grow your SME using the Apprenticeship Levy Transfer
22nd July 2022
Whilst it may seem counter-intuitive to the Government’s pledge to invest in apprenticeships, SMEs are subject to a funding cap of ten apprentices.
So what happens where organisations – particularly those considered medium-sized – have a requirement to take on more than ten apprentices, including where external factors have changed how they operate? Nurseries are one such example. Protocols around Covid, which involved creating bubbles for different age groups, meant that additional staff were needed.
The Apprenticeship Levy Transfer allows businesses to continue with their journey of recruiting and retaining apprentices without being restricted by the ten-apprentice cap. Better still, using the Levy removes the need for them to pay the usual 5% employer contribution.
How does the Apprentice Levy Transfer work?
Organisations with an annual wage bill of more than £3 million are allowed to transfer up to 25% of their Levy funds to other organisations that might lack the financial resources to invest in apprenticeship training for existing staff or to take on new apprentices.
Over its 40-year history, Access Training has partnered with a number of Apprenticeship Levy employers to match them with the SMEs that could benefit from their support, either for the benefit of upskilling their existing staff or recruiting into their workforce. SMEs in nursery/ childcare and health and social care settings have particularly benefited.
Two recent examples are as follows:
Fountain Medical Centre, Newark
Access Training has worked for some years now on behalf of its long-standing client Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH); helping it to transfer its Apprenticeship Levy to apprenticeships in clinical areas such as Adult Care as well as non-clinical areas such as team leading and supervision. In total, some 20 primary care centres have been supported by Access Training to access this pot over the last twelve months.
They include Fountain Medical Centre in Newark which took advantage of NUH’s Levy transfer pot to develop staff skills in customer services, business administration and supervision.
Lisa Sandland-Taylor, Practice Manager, explains the benefits to their centre,
“Without NUH’s transferred Levy funds, we would have been unable to put four members of our staff through apprenticeship training; an undertaking which would have cost our practice in the region of £4,000. This learning in each area will undoubtedly help the practice deliver the service its patients deserve.”
Learn more about Fountain Medical Centre’s apprenticeship journey.
Bear Care Day Nurseries, Nottingham
Bear Care Day Nurseries have been avid fans of apprenticeship training for some time. So much so, that this group of nurseries had utilised all ten apprenticeship funding spaces allocated to its apprenticeship account by April 2021.
Caroline Budden, Director of Bear Care, explains how reaching their allocation didn’t stop them,
“Having funding to support newly recruited, unqualified staff through the childcare apprenticeship programmes is essential for their training and professional development. So it’s worrying to us that we do not know when, or even if, the government will increase the number of funding spaces available on small employers’ apprenticeship accounts.
“Access Training have been excellent in supporting us through this challenge. They have helped us identify large organisations who can share their unused apprenticeship funds with us. They have supported us thoroughly through the application and administration process of what is known as a ‘levy transfer’ which means we can continue to support the training and development of our staff through apprenticeships.”
Find out more
Tapping into Apprentice Levy Transfer money is beneficial, both for SMEs that are well-seasoned in apprenticeships but have reached the cap of ten; and for SMEs that have found the 5% employer contribution to be financially prohibitive.
Access Training can help you navigate your way through the application process, including setting up the formal agreements.
Contact us to find out more.
So what happens where organisations – particularly those considered medium-sized – have a requirement to take on more than ten apprentices, including where external factors have changed how they operate? Nurseries are one such example. Protocols around Covid, which involved creating bubbles for different age groups, meant that additional staff were needed.
The Apprenticeship Levy Transfer allows businesses to continue with their journey of recruiting and retaining apprentices without being restricted by the ten-apprentice cap. Better still, using the Levy removes the need for them to pay the usual 5% employer contribution.
How does the Apprentice Levy Transfer work?
Organisations with an annual wage bill of more than £3 million are allowed to transfer up to 25% of their Levy funds to other organisations that might lack the financial resources to invest in apprenticeship training for existing staff or to take on new apprentices.
Over its 40-year history, Access Training has partnered with a number of Apprenticeship Levy employers to match them with the SMEs that could benefit from their support, either for the benefit of upskilling their existing staff or recruiting into their workforce. SMEs in nursery/ childcare and health and social care settings have particularly benefited.
Two recent examples are as follows:
Fountain Medical Centre, Newark
Access Training has worked for some years now on behalf of its long-standing client Nottingham University Hospitals (NUH); helping it to transfer its Apprenticeship Levy to apprenticeships in clinical areas such as Adult Care as well as non-clinical areas such as team leading and supervision. In total, some 20 primary care centres have been supported by Access Training to access this pot over the last twelve months.
They include Fountain Medical Centre in Newark which took advantage of NUH’s Levy transfer pot to develop staff skills in customer services, business administration and supervision.
Lisa Sandland-Taylor, Practice Manager, explains the benefits to their centre,
“Without NUH’s transferred Levy funds, we would have been unable to put four members of our staff through apprenticeship training; an undertaking which would have cost our practice in the region of £4,000. This learning in each area will undoubtedly help the practice deliver the service its patients deserve.”
Learn more about Fountain Medical Centre’s apprenticeship journey.
Bear Care Day Nurseries, Nottingham
Bear Care Day Nurseries have been avid fans of apprenticeship training for some time. So much so, that this group of nurseries had utilised all ten apprenticeship funding spaces allocated to its apprenticeship account by April 2021.
Caroline Budden, Director of Bear Care, explains how reaching their allocation didn’t stop them,
“Having funding to support newly recruited, unqualified staff through the childcare apprenticeship programmes is essential for their training and professional development. So it’s worrying to us that we do not know when, or even if, the government will increase the number of funding spaces available on small employers’ apprenticeship accounts.
“Access Training have been excellent in supporting us through this challenge. They have helped us identify large organisations who can share their unused apprenticeship funds with us. They have supported us thoroughly through the application and administration process of what is known as a ‘levy transfer’ which means we can continue to support the training and development of our staff through apprenticeships.”
Find out more
Tapping into Apprentice Levy Transfer money is beneficial, both for SMEs that are well-seasoned in apprenticeships but have reached the cap of ten; and for SMEs that have found the 5% employer contribution to be financially prohibitive.
Access Training can help you navigate your way through the application process, including setting up the formal agreements.
Contact us to find out more.
Share this post
