Mayor celebrates National Apprenticeship Week

Mayor celebrates National Apprenticeship Week with visit to Leeds business as she hails success of multimillion pound support scheme.

07/02/2023 

Mayor celebrates National Apprenticeship Week

To mark National Apprenticeship week, Mayor of West Yorkshire, Tracy Brabin visited Leeds based firm, Pragmatic Digital, who received a share of the Combined Authority’s £3.7 million apprenticeship fund.

Web development and digital company Pragmatic Digital recently hired two apprentices in software development roles thanks to the Mayor’s specialist apprenticeship service.

The Combined Authority received over £3.7million to support businesses and their future workforce through apprenticeships. The scheme engages with larger businesses to encourage them to pledge a proportion of their unspent apprenticeship levy through the service. Pledged levy is then transferred to non-levy paying businesses taking on apprentices to cover 100% of the training costs.

The Combined Authority supported the transfer of funding from Amazon and Cognizant to Pragmatic Digital.

So far, the Mayor’s apprenticeship service has supported 440 apprentices in 112 businesses across West Yorkshire and York. Pledging companies include Amazon, ASDA, Santander, Cognizant and Yorkshire Building Society.

Tracy Brabin, Mayor of West Yorkshire said: 

“I’m proud that we have supported hundreds of apprentices through our service – it is a fantastic achievement. And it’s even better to see apprentices securing jobs.
 
“Getting our talented young people into skilled jobs is one of my key commitments to the people of West Yorkshire, and this is a great example of how we are making this a reality.
 
“I’d encourage any eligible businesses to get in touch to see how we can work together to support more people into employment, whilst boosting our local economy.”

It was a pleasure to welcome Mayor Tracy Brabin at our business Pragmatic Digital today to see the positive developments the Apprenticeship Levy has made for us. As a company we are proud to have supported two apprentices get their foot into the door while they are training. Thanks to the Apprenticeship Levy Transfer Service, companies like ours support the future workforce by getting them into skilled jobs while also boosting the local economy.

Rob Fraser, Managing Director at Pragmatic Digital

To find out more about pledging your unspent levy please visit:

https://www.the-lep.com/business-support/skills-and-training/guidance-for-businesses-wanting-to-transfer-their-unspent-levy-funding/ 

 

Or if you are a training provider looking for funding to support apprentices please visit:

https://www.the-lep.com/business-support/skills-and-training/guidance-for-training-providers/

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