Minutes:
Mr David Warnes, Vice Principal Innovation & Enterprise, Bromley College of Further and Higher Education and Ms Lesley Holland, Acting EBP Manager, Bromley Education Business Partnership gave a presentation on the new apprenticeships levy.
The Partnership was advised that significant changes would be taking place as to how the Government funds apprenticeships. From 6th April 2017, all employers with a payroll bill greater than £3m per year would have to pay an apprenticeships levy of 0.5%. It was estimated that the levy would increase the pot of money to be invested into apprenticeships from £1.5bn to £3bn.
Levy paying employers would be able to access funding for apprenticeships through the new Digital Apprenticeship Service account in the form of a digital voucher. It was noted that there were currently some set priced training schemes, but from April 2017 that would no longer be the case and employers would need to negotiate costs directly with the training providers. The levy funds could only be used to pay for training and assessment of apprenticeships, and could not be put towards any on-costs such as wages, travel costs and managerial costs.
It was anticipated that 98% of employers would be non-levy paying. They would also negotiate the cost of training with their chosen provider, and would continue to have access to Government funding to support apprenticeships but would be expected to make a financial contribution towards those costs. It was not currently known what the level of contribution would be. If levy paying employers had an under-spend, that money would be put into a separate pot to support non-levy paying employers who could then bid for extra funding. If levy paying business spent all of their contributions and top-ups, co-funding would be available from Government with the employer being asked to co-invest a small proportion of funding towards the extra cost of training.
Mr Warnes informed the Partnership that Levy Support Services would be available from London South East Colleges including free consultancy support, an online levy calculator and downloadable materials and literature. It was planned that Skills Summit events would take place in autumn 2016 and spring 2017 to bring stakeholders together, and workshops for levy and non-levy employers would be arranged in collaboration with the Bromley Education Business Partnership. It was hoped that these could highlight to local companies the importance of using their pots of money to avoid the allocation for the Borough being spread across the country, and enable the use of contacts within the supply chain.
Ms Holland reported that the National Health Service and Local Authorities would be at the forefront of the scheme due to their current wage bills. The London Borough of Bromley levy, based on the current full time equivalent staff numbers, would be in the region of £350,000 and the number of apprentices would need to be increased to 34. It was anticipated that as funding could be used to upskill established staff, this would be carried out to reach the target. This would see officers working with colleagues from other London Councils to share good practice and looking at qualification frameworks to ensure a breadth of opportunities across departments. Specific support would be included for vulnerable young people including Children Looked After (CLA’s) and Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET’s).
It was noted that The National Apprenticeship Service would convert to the Institute for Apprenticeships from April 2017. Further updates from Government had been delayed, but more information would be provided when it became available.
The Chairman thanked Ms Holland and Mr Warnes for their presentation and looked forward to hearing further updates at future meetings.