Modern Apprenticeships

Apprenticeships: Latest Developments.
With apprenticeships increasing in popularity and offering a vocational alternative to full-time education the government has announced its latest developments to its scheme to ensure that employers are more involved in the whole process from recruitment, funding, training and appraisal of the apprentice, the aim to ensure that industry receives the candidates trained to their own requirements. In the light of Brexit, some final financing decisions have been postponed from their initial June 2016 release date, but with the Apprentice scheme enjoying  cross party support numerous changes are likely  to be implemented.

Employers will now choose a training provider from a register of providers and will be in a position to negotiate the cost of training. In most cases there will be an annual apprentice capped cost of £6,000. If training is negotiated at a cost of say £7,500 the following will happen: Levy payers will have the £6,000 deducted from their levy held and will need to pay the balance of the training. Non-levy payers will be asked to pay a small contribution towards the training (negotiable, depending on the availability of other grants). Further grants to supplement costs of training will be available for 16-18 year old apprentices, apprentices 19-24 with education or healthcare plans. These funding arrangements are subject to confirmation in Autumn 2016. A new Institute of Apprenticeships, led by employers to set the industry standards and the benchmarking for the appraisal of apprentices and a digital apprenticeship service, this will control the financing of the scheme. The timeline for the above changes:

• Autumn 16 to confirm the funding and operational details of the new scheme
• End 16 to set the industry specific standards
• Spring 17 to commence the new arrangements
• May 17 the digital apprenticeship service to be established

Disclaimer - All information in this post was correct at time of writing.