Changes to the Apprenticeship Levy

The Government will fully fund apprenticeships in small businesses from 1st April by paying the full cost of training for anyone up to the age of 21 - reducing costs and burdens for businesses and delivering more opportunities for young people to kick start their careers.

This will remove the need for small employers to meet some of the cost of training and saves time and costs for providers like further education colleges who currently need to source funding separately from the government and businesses. 

From the start of April, the government will also increase the amount of funding that employers who are paying the apprenticeship levy can pass onto other businesses. Apprenticeships can currently be funded by a levy paying employer transferring up to 25% of their unused levy to a different employer. Under the new measures, large employers who pay the apprenticeship levy will be able to transfer up to 50% of their funds to support other businesses, including smaller firms, to take on apprentices. This will help SMEs hire more apprentices by reducing costs and enabling more employers to get the skilled workers they need while unlocking more opportunities for young people in a huge range of sectors, industries, and professions. 

It could also benefit employers in the social purpose sector to upskill their workforce by minimising expenditure on what is sometimes considered overhead.  This change has been in response to a call for greater flexibility in the government’s flagship training policy which has seen over £2bn of unspent levy transferred to the Treasury since 2019. 

If you’d like to find out more about donating or benefiting from apprenticeship levy donation, please contact apprenticeships@bnu.ac.uk.