Apprenticeships are an important way for us to develop the skills we need to thrive as a region. They are an opportunity to recruit talented young people with new ways of thinking, while building the skills your organisation needs.
Employers consistently find that apprenticeships help them succeed:
Other benefits of working with apprentices include:
The UK Government wants to increase the number of apprenticeship opportunities. That is why larger employers pay the apprenticeship levy.
The apprenticeship levy is a UK tax on employers which is used to fund apprenticeship training. It is payable by all employers with an annual pay bill of more than £3 million, at a rate of 0.5% of their total pay bill.
Employers who pay the apprenticeship levy can use it to fund their own apprentices. But if they have unspent funds, they can share them with a small business which otherwise might not be able to afford an apprentice. This is called an apprenticeship levy transfer.
Transferring levy funds is a way of supporting other businesses by deciding which sectors, skills or local areas you’d like to fund. For example, you could support the engineering sector across West Yorkshire, or fund digital apprenticeships in a particular town or city. Transferring unspent levy funds is a great way to give back to local communities.
We can help larger businesses share their levy funds with smaller businesses. We can also help smaller businesses that are looking for support in funding apprenticeships.
The transfer service lets larger businesses transfer up to 50% of their unspent levy to smaller businesses taking on apprentices. The transferred funding covers 100% of the training costs of the apprenticeship and lets smaller businesses avoid paying the 5% contribution towards training.
IMPORTANT: It is essential that you do not enroll a learner on to the apprenticeship course until a levy match has been agreed and the pledging business has connected with you on the AS account. Failure to do so will stop the levy transfer process from taking place.
Some levy businesses may stipulate that they will only consider a levy transfer to a business within their sector or particular area. We have no influence over this or its potential impact on finding funding matches. We can not guarantee a levy transfer will be agreed. Some levy-paying businesses may ask to meet you, to understand more about your business and the apprenticeship(s) which require funding, before making any decisions about a potential levy transfer. Your training provider will let you know if this is the case.
If your business is not spending all of its levy funding, we can help you to transfer up to 50% of your annual levy contribution to fund apprenticeships in other organisations. This means your levy will be supporting local people and businesses, instead of expiring in your apprenticeship service account.
Making a transfer benefits your business. Your unspent levy funds can:
Make smaller businesses in your supply chain more efficient and improve your own business performance
Increase skills in your sector and improve the future talent pipeline available to you
Raise your profile in the local community by funding apprenticeships in charities and organisations that support your corporate social responsibility policy
If you would like to receive a transfer, you can get support from the Apprenticeship Levy Support Service through your preferred training provider.Â
 If you are facing challenges securing funding for an apprenticeship, we can help whether or not you pay the levy. You are eligible for support if one of the following applies to you: Â
You would benefit from 100% of the apprenticeship training costs being coveredÂ
You are a levy payer and you have committed all your own levy fundingÂ
You can ask your preferred training provider to register the apprenticeships which require funding. The apprenticeships can be at any level and from any sector, but they must be an apprenticeship standard, not a framework. Your business must be located in West Yorkshire to access the service.Â
If you are working with an organisation that is looking to receive an apprenticeship levy transfer, our levy support team can help. We will try to introduce the organisation to a business that might share its levy funding and help them have a productive conversation.
Businesses that are seeking transfers must register their apprenticeships on the Apprenticeship Levy Support Service through a training provider in order to be eligible. The training provider can then fill out the form below to contact our levy support team and begin the process.
