Apprenticeship Information for Schools
Are you making the most of your Apprenticeship Levy funds? If you’re not, or you’re unsure on how to get started, this article from the Warwickshire Apprenticeship Hub is for you…
What is the Apprenticeship Levy?
The levy is a payment to the government made by all employers in England with a pay bill of £3m or more per year. The money paid does not just disappear however; it simply becomes available to spend on apprenticeship training, delivered by a quality assessed training provider. Warwickshire County Council (including community schools) pays approximately £1.2m into the levy annually, all of which we want to invest back into the authority, wherever there is a skills need. The money is paid into the levy monthly, calculated as 0.5% of the Councils pay bill for each month.
So we hire apprentices to get the money back?
You can hire an apprentice, and we certainly encourage you to offer apprenticeship vacancies where possible, but the levy also funds training for your current employees too, as long as it is delivered by an approved provider through an apprenticeship framework or standard. The levy doesn't pay for the salary of an apprentice, you must provide that, but if the costs of recruiting an apprentice are too much at this time, that doesn’t mean you can’t use the levy funds to invest in your current staff skills instead.
Which apprenticeships are available for school employees? There are numerous types of apprenticeship already available to use for roles in schools, these include:
• Teaching Assistant
• PE in School Sports
• Early Years Educator
• Business Administration
• Leadership & Management
• IT
• Facilities Management
• Customer Service
• Marketing
• Play worker
• School Business Manager
• Teacher
You can also search further for all types of apprenticeship training via this handy website:
https://findapprenticeshiptraining.sfa.bis.gov.uk/
The examples above cover a range of different education levels, from Level 2 up to Level 6 (degree equivalent). The Teacher apprenticeship is degree level and the newest on the list, the School Business Manager qualification, is Level 4 (equivalent to an HNC).
How do I know who is an approved Apprenticeship Training Provider?
To deliver apprenticeship training, a provider must be on the Register of Approved Training Providers (RoATP) which is managed by the government.
Following a recent and ongoing tendering process, Warwickshire County Council is contracted with several apprenticeship training providers. Those that are able to deliver schools apprenticeships include:
Aspire Sports - https://www.aspire-sports.co.uk/employ-apprentice
Aurelia Training - http://aureliatraining.com/apprenticeships.html
Coventry City College - http://www.coventrycollege.ac.uk/apprenticeships-2/
Coventry & Warwickshire Chamber Training - http://www.cw-chambertraining.co.uk/apprenticeships/
Heart of England Training - https://www.hoet.co.uk/apprenticeships/
National Schools Training - https://www.nationalschoolstraining.co.uk/
North Warwickshire & South Leicestershire College - http://www.nwhc.ac.uk/apprenticeships/
Primary Goal - https://primarygoal.ac.uk/
SCCU - http://www.sccu.uk.com/apprenticeships/
Warwickshire College - https://www.wcg.ac.uk/page/153/apprenticeships
Please be aware that WCC Community Schools must only use training providers who are contracted to deliver apprenticeship training for the Council. If you wish to work with a provider but you are unsure if they are contracted with us, contact the Apprenticeship Hub. Likewise, if you’d like advice on which provider may be best suited to deliver for your school, then we can also help you with that too.
How do we access our levy funds, and how much can we spend?
WCC’s levy funds are managed by the Apprenticeship Hub, so if you want to pay a provider to deliver training for you, simply let us know and we will set the payments up for you, or alternatively get the training provider to contact us to sort this for you on your behalf. The costs of the training will be paid for entirely by the levy up to the funding band of the apprenticeship you are using, and it is rare for a provider to charge over the funding band amount. If they do that however, you will need to pay the remaining costs from non-levy funds.
What you pay into the levy isn’t necessarily all you can take out. We are keen to ensure that the levy funds are maximised and put to use within the authority wherever possible, but as of April 2019, whatever we haven’t spent in the month two years prior to that will expire and be used by the government in other ways. You are welcome to make the most of the levy funds in your school, wherever apprenticeship training can help provide new skills and knowledge for you or your staff.
Can we spend levy funds on non-apprenticeship training?
No. Levy funds cannot be spent on anything but apprenticeship training and assessment costs, the training delivered must be as part of an accredited apprenticeship framework/standard delivered by a training provider on the RoATP. New apprenticeship standards include an end point assessment that the apprentice must pass to complete their apprenticeship, and 20% of the cost of the apprenticeship is held back for that to be delivered by an End Point Assessment Organisation.
Levy funds cannot be used for apprentice’s salary costs, travel costs or costs associated with recruiting and/or managing the apprentice. You will receive a reimbursement of £1,000 however if you recruit an apprentice aged 16 – 18, or a 19 – 24 year old who has a Local Authority Education and Healthcare Plan. There is also additional government funding available for additional learning support and English and Maths training if the apprentice requires this.
Further help, advice and support
The Apprenticeship Hub at Warwickshire County Council will be happy to support you and your school with advice and information about apprenticeships and the apprenticeship levy. We can help you to choose a training provider, promote your apprenticeship vacancies, and enable you to pay for apprenticeship training via the levy. To contact the Apprenticeship Hub, call 01926 418040 or email apprentice@warwickshire.gov.uk.