Employers

What is the Levy?

The government introduced the Apprenticeship Levy to improve the quality and quantity of Apprenticeships in England. Apprenticeships benefit employers and individuals by boosting the skills of their workforce and help to improve economic productivity.

The 2017 reforms will give employers more control over designing, choosing and paying for apprenticeship training.

The levy will be paid by employers with a pay bill of over £3 million:

Levy came into effect 6 April 2017 and a new funding system was implemented.

The levy will affect employers in all sectors.

The levy may be looked after by your head office / finance department.

The levy will be charged at a rate of 0.5% of an employer’s pay bill.

10% Government top-up monthly.

Control of apprenticeship funding will be put in the hands of employers through the Digital Apprenticeship Service.

Paying the apprenticeship Levy,

You can pay for apprenticeship training and assessment with funds through your apprenticeship service account (DAS). Once the apprenticeship training you’ve brought has started, monthly payments will be taken from your service account and sent to the provider. You will see funds entering your account each month after you have declared the levy to HMRC, and funds leaving the account each month as you pay for further training. If you don’t have enough funds in your account to pay for training in a particular month, you will share the remaining cost of training and assessing your apprentices for that month with the government. This is called ‘co-investment’, you will pay 5% of the outstanding balance for that month, and the government will pay the remaining 95% up to the funding band maximum. If your costs go over the maximum, then you must pay the difference out of your own budget.

The Digital Apprenticeship Service

This is available to all employers in England will have access to a new, easy to use Digital Apprenticeship Service that will help support them to manage their apprenticeship programme. Control of apprenticeship funding will be put in the hands of employers through the Digital Apprenticeship Service. From May 2017 levy-paying employers will be able to access funding for apprenticeships through their Digital Apprenticeship Service account and:

Negotiate and pay for apprenticeship training and assessment

Manage their funding and apprentices.

View their levy balance and plan their spending.

The indicative online tool, employers can estimate their levy contribution, begin to plan their training requirements and = estimate their financial spending available to them

Through recruiting an apprentice, City College Peterborough can post your vacancies for apprenticeships free of charge.

Employers with a wage bill less than £3 million will not pay the levy but will contribute 5% towards the cost of the apprenticeship training and assessing and the government will co-invest the remaining 95%.

Employers with less than 50 employees will not have to pay towards an apprenticeship, when taking on an apprentice that is between 16-18. Also when an employer takes on an apprentice between 16-18 they will receive a £1000 grant to help towards additional costs such as equipment and support.

Through recruiting an apprentice, City College Peterborough can post your vacancies for apprenticeships free of charge.

All non-levy employers are now required to create a Digital Apprenticeship Service account to reserve funds.

• Dedicated account manager
• Training needs analysis undertaken to identify individual needs
• Interview support management
• Free recruitment service
• Tailored Programmes

An apprentice brings a huge return on investment for you as an employer. The pay rate for an apprentice depends upon numerous factors, but the recruitment team at City College Peterborough will be more than happy to explain this in further detail.

The National Minimum Wage for apprentices applies to those who are aged under 19 and those who are aged 19 or over and in the first year of their apprenticeship. All other apprentices are entitled to the National Minimum Wage for their age. You can find out more about the current National Minimum Wage for apprentices on www.gov.uk/national-minimum-wage-rates.

An apprentice can enter your business, as a novice or be an existing member of staff and you will quickly see their productivity increase, their knowledge expand and their capabilities strengthen.

With an apprentice from City College Peterborough you can feel reassured that your apprentice will be an ideal organisational fit, as they will have learnt and developed according to your business needs and your working practices. Apprentices will transfer new ideas and fresh thinking into the workplace.

Not only do apprenticeships deliver real financial returns, they help to improve productivity for you and to be more competitive. Training apprentices is more cost effective than hiring skilled staff, leading to lower overall training and recruitment costs.

Apprentices are often motivated, dedicated members of a team as they learn, earn and gain hands-on experience. Here at City College Peterborough we have a great variety of apprenticeship programmes available for anyone aged 16 and over, and we are always looking for businesses to step on board too.

City College Peterborough offers a free recruitment service for your apprenticeship role. We will advertise the positions and screen all applicants prior to sending their details over to your company for consideration. City College Peterborough will assess the applicant’s functional skills in English and maths, as well as their ICT abilities before suggesting them for the position. As the employer you will be able to shortlist candidates and hold interviews in order to select the candidate that is right for you.

Apprentices can fulfil a number of roles within all businesses, from administration to catering through to team leading and management. Depending on the type of role you require, an apprenticeship can be tailored to suit the requirements of your job role. This provides greater flexibility and ensures that your apprentice is being trained to meet the needs of your business and the role you require.

• Business Administration
• Creative & Digital Media
• Childcare
• Customer Service
• Hospitality & Catering
• Health & Social Care
• IT Professional
• IT Application Specialist
• Social Media & Digital Marketing
• Support Teaching & Learning in School
• Team Leading & Management
• School Business Manager
• HR Support
• Housing and Property Management

As an employer it is important that you provide your apprentice with an introduction into their role and continual on-the-job learning. Through on-the-job learning an apprentice will develop job-specific skills that will enable them to fulfil the role and meet the requirements of their programme.

You will need to help plan by identifying activities that can be used to generate evidence and setting targets for achievement and assessment, monitor your apprentice, check their work regularly, record any areas for improvement, give opportunities for practice, discuss performance with your apprentice ensuring they input to the process.

As part of their programme your apprentice will be required to complete 20% off-the-job training. This can take place in their normal place of work but must not be part of their normal role and must be directly relevant to their apprenticeship.

College workshops, support sessions and functional skills lessons will need to be attended. This can count to their 20% off the job hours.

There are a few things that you need to consider when thinking about taking on an apprentice:

• An apprentice must be employed by you to fulfill the requirements of the apprenticeship.
• They are your member of staff and therefore will have the same rights and responsibilities as other employees.
• Most of the training is completed at your premises. The rest is delivered by us at College through workshops and supported learning sessions.
• As with all employees, you are responsible for the apprentice’s wages and paying any tax and national insurance.
• The length of an apprenticeship depends upon the prior skills of the apprentice; the qualification being obtained the number of hours worked each weekend and the industry sector. Generally, apprenticeships take between one and four years to complete.
• The minimum length of an apprenticeship is just over one year.
• Apprentices must be paid in line with the national minimum wage for apprenticeships. Many employers prefer to pay more however, and the amount offered will influence the number of applicants you receive.
• 95% of the costs for training an apprentice are provided by the Government, with a 5% contribution from the employer (Non-Levy paying). However, there are many incentives available so you could get back more money than you have paid.

Would you be willing to help to develop the personal, social and employability skills of our learners?

We believe that it is important to develop these skills so that our learners understand the standards that are expected in the workplace and how to become an important part of their community.

We believe that by completing work experience or volunteering will help to build up their confidence and that by combining this with their technical skills, it will make them more ready for employment.

By offering work experience or volunteering within your workplace then it will enable you to gain insight and feedback from a different perspective and will be a rewarding experience for all of those involved.

The duration and timing of the placements can be flexible to meet your needs and ensure that they suit both parties.

We have dedicated team of work experience officers in place who will assist you throughout the process and you will be allocated a named individual to support you as your point of contact.

In addition to work experience and volunteering opportunities, we also offer supported internships for learners with learning difficulties or disabilities.

This is a highly rewarding programme and you will be fully supported throughout the whole process by a dedicated member of staff. This will help to develop the learner from being fully supported to working independently within a practical job role.

We will assist you throughout the recruitment process, from advertising to interviewing and employment.

We would love to hear from you, if you would like to discuss any of these opportunities further. Please do not hesitate to contact us on 01733 293899.

Register your interest using our online form below and a member of our team will contact you to discuss this further. Alternatively, please email business@citycollegepeterborough.ac.uk or call us on 01733 293899.

If you are in the early stages of hiring an apprentice, one of our account managers can come visit you at your business to discuss your training needs analysis.

We will work with you to advertise your vacancy and will initially interview all applicants for you. We will then provide you with suitable applicants for you to interview. (If you already have an employee in place and want them to start an apprenticeship then we can come to the workplace to discuss the process in detail and begin their apprenticeship )

Once an applicant has been successfully recruited, the apprenticeship will begin. You will receive regular progress reports on the performance of your apprentice from the College and regular review meetings will take place.
We are here to help and support both you and the apprentice throughout their programme and will be available if you have any questions at any time.