FUNDING AN APPRENTICESHIP FOR NON-LEVY EMPLOYERS
How much does it cost?
As an employer that doesn’t pay the apprenticeship levy, you pay just 5% towards the cost of training and assessing an apprentice.
The government will pay the rest up to the funding band maximum.
You’ll pay the training provider directly and agree on a payment schedule.
If you employ fewer than 50 employees, the government will pay 100% of the apprenticeship training costs up to the funding band maximum for apprentices aged:
16 to 18
19 to 24 with an education, health and care plan provided by their local authority or has been in the care of their local authority
If you exceed the funding band maximum, you’ll need to pay all the additional costs.
If your apprentice started before 1 April 2019, you pay 10% towards the cost of training and assessing your apprentice and the government pays the rest. This rate continues until your apprentice completes their training.
You will need to create an apprenticeship service account to reserve apprenticeship funding. For further information visit our help article or watch our video.
Incentive payments for hiring a new apprentice
To help businesses offer new apprenticeships, we have increased incentive payments for employers hiring a new apprentice from 1 April 2021 to 30 September 2021.
Employers can apply for a payment of £3000 for new apprentices of any age who have an employment start date of 1 April 2021 to 30 September 2021.
They must have an apprenticeship start date of 1 April 2021 to 30 November 2021.
The incentive payment is in addition to the £1,000 employers already receive for hiring an apprentice:
aged 16 to 18 years old
aged 19 to 24 with an education, health and care plan or who has been in the care of their local authority
For guidance on how to apply for an incentive payment using your apprenticeship service account, watch our helpful video.
Paying your apprentice
You’re responsible for paying your apprentice for their normal working hours and any training they do as part of the apprenticeship.
As of 1st April 2022, the National Minimum Wage for Apprentices has increased from £4.30 per hour to £4.81 per hour. It means that Apprentices between 16-18 years old or Apprentices in the first year of their Apprenticeship are legally entitled to earn £4.81 per hour, minimum.
The National Minimum Wage and the National Living Wage have increased depending on age. The new rates, depending on age, are as follows:
Apprentice: £4.81 per hour
Under 18: £4.81 per hour
Aged 18-20-years old: £6.83 per hour
Aged 21-22-years old: £9.18 per hour
Aged 23 years old and over: £9.50 per hour
To view a list of the current rates and compare them with the previous years’ rates, visit National Minimum Wage and National Living Wage rates – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk).
Hire an apprentice who has been made redundant
You can also use a new government service to help you hire apprentices who have been made redundant.
Many of these apprentices may already have the skills and knowledge you are searching for. Hiring a new apprentice in this way could mean you have a work-ready apprentice who can quickly add value to your business, shortening the time you’ll see a return on your investment.
It also means you are supporting an apprentice to complete their training and achieve their apprenticeship.
If you hire an apprentice that has been made redundant, you can apply for incentive payments for hiring a new apprentice.
Receiving a transfer of levy funds
Employers who pay the apprenticeship levy can choose to transfer any unused funds to another employer, using the apprenticeship service.
This would help them to pay for apprenticeship training and assessments.
You can find employers who may want to transfer funds by:
speaking to training providers
working with employers in your supply chain
getting in touch with employers in your industry
working with regional partners
A levy-paying employer can transfer a maximum of 25% of their levy funds.
What you will need
Before you start, you’ll need to know the:
advert name - this must relate to the apprenticeship training and use the word ‘apprentice’ or ‘apprenticeship’
training provider that will deliver the training
number of available positions
organisation’s name, address and location
start date, application closing date and whether the job is disability confident
duration of the apprenticeship and details of a typical working week
wage
places you want to get applications (on ‘find an apprenticeship’ or an external site)
You can save each advert as a draft and edit it before you submit it to us, as well as preview how it’ll look. We’ll give you a reference number for the advert after you submit it.
What happens next
You can check the status of each advert in your adverts dashboard. The statuses are:
rejected
draft
live
closed
pending review
We’ll check the advert and let you know if you need to make any edits within 24 hours. You can view what edits you need to make on your ‘adverts’ dashboard, but you can also choose to get email notifications.
Once we’ve approved the advert, you can view it on Find an apprenticeship. You can also increase the wage or extend the closing date after the advert has gone live.
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