The Education and Skills Funding Agency’s (ESFA) is opening up its apprenticeship service to employers of all sizes, regardless of whether they pay the levy or not.
While currently only around 17,000 apprenticeship levy-paying employers – those with an annual total payroll bill of over £3m – or those in receipt of a transfer of apprenticeship funds, are able to use the full benefits of the award-winning service. The first employers and providers will start using it this summer.
Over the next year, the ESFA will allow all employers will be able to control how they pay for their apprenticeship training, and to assess and recruit their apprentices. In addition, a larger pool of relevant training providers will be available to them.
Eileen Milner, ESFA chief executive said: “Moving non-levy employers onto the apprenticeship service will give small and medium sized businesses a greater choice of quality training providers, and the opportunity to have more control over apprenticeship training decisions for their business.
“Employers understand the needs of their sector and know better than anyone about how best to use their apprenticeship funding. By working with smaller employers, the ESFA will get insight into the skills needs of a wider range of businesses which will help us to remove barriers employers have when recruiting an apprentice.”
Dominique Unsworth BEM, SME Ambassador, commented: “Moving the significant numbers of employers that do not pay the levy onto the service will bring greater opportunities for employer choice; it will empower more companies – especially small and medium sized businesses – to connect with apprenticeships, to make more informed choices around the quality of the apprenticeship marketplace.”
During the transition period, the ESFA will be releasing more details and also invite current non-levy employers to the apprenticeship service for user testing through an Expressions of Interest (EOI) phase.
Association of Employment and Learning Providers chief executive Mark Dawe said: “This is a critical and welcome advance in the reform of apprenticeships. By releasing all employers and providers from the previous contracting system, the government is enabling employers to exercise genuine choice over the apprenticeships that they wish to offer and any registered provider needed to support the training.
“It will lead to increased workforce productivity among SMEs and make a real difference to social mobility with more apprenticeship opportunities available to young people across the country.”
