Apprenticeship Levy Tips

As an employer, are you aware that if you don’t use it you will lose it? 

“You might be surprised at how much money you are losing each month from your Apprenticeship Levy pot,” says Sue Burrell, of The Apprenticeship College, which MDS partners with for our training.  “Each payment you make has a shelf life of two years, and businesses are losing thousands of pounds each month that they could be using to invest and upskill their staff. The Apprenticeship College has a levy calculator that can be used to ensure you don’t fall into this trap.” 

Tell me more… 

If you have a wage bill more than £3m per year, 0.5% of your payroll will be collected by HMRC as an Apprenticeship Levy. It will be credited to your Apprenticeship Service Account (ASA) and topped by an additional 10% by the Government. If it’s there, why not use it?  

How does this apply to me? 

The good news is that MDS can help you recover 100% of that to fund training delivered by us, with The Apprenticeship College, to your existing employees.  

You can develop or reskill existing employees by signing them up to the MDS training programme. This allows you to maximise your levy and develop your staff delivering a measurable return on investment. 

How much can I recoup? 

Apprenticeship Levy recovery values range from £3,000 to £27,000 per apprentice. You are not limited to the number of apprentices you can train, and even if you have used up all of your levy pot, you may be eligible for additional co-funding for up to 90% of the cost. 

What if I am not a levy payer? 

For non-levy paying companies, as a Member you can access the MDS training at a much lower cost of 5% to train existing staff. For example, the Leadership and Management programme would require a Member contribution of £350 and the remaining 95% would be funded by the government.  

How does it work? 

MDS works with The Apprenticeship College to deliver our rigorous management training which results in a Level 5 Leadership and Management Apprenticeship, accredited by the Chartered Management Institute, and tailored to the fresh produce industry.  

This is what our MDS Trainees are taking time out of placements to complete during their two-year traineeship, and is available to your existing staff as a Member. 

You can put your existing employees through the same management training programme and use your apprenticeship levy to fund the training. 

This usually equates to 22 days of off-the-job training over two years. Members who have 12 or more employees who they want to put on the apprenticeship programme can have the training delivered on site and a schedule can be bespoke to that business. Members with 1 – 11 employees will form a cohort with employees from other Members. These cohorts usually run parallel to MDS groups and start in October and April each year. 

Call Kirsty on 01733 595123 to discuss it further and what would suit your business. 

To find out more, see here or watch this.