Funding the Apprenticeship

How the government funds apprenticeships in England, including details of funding bands and the apprenticeship levy

Do you pay into the apprenticeship levy?

What is the Apprenticeship levy

A company with a payroll of more than £3 million will pay 0.5% of the pay bill into the apprenticeship levy. The apprentice levy can only be used for apprenticeships; however, this can be used for new or existing staff.

The levy is collected automatically through the PAYE with HMRC alongside income tax and national insurance. You can use your apprenticeship levy to recruit new staff or develop new skills for existing staff. The introduction of the apprenticeship levy has given employers better control on duration, training and assessments to get the perfect outcome.

Route map - How it works

How to set up and add apprentices onto the Digital Account

If you do not pay into the levy

If you are a small to medium enterprise or a micro company, then you can receive 95% of funding for apprenticeships. You can recruit new or train eligible existing members of staff and the government will pay 95% of the apprenticeship price. If you employ less than 49 members of staff and recruit a 16 – 18 year old the government will fully fund the apprentice.

As an SME/Micro employer, you will need to register with The apprenticeship service to allocate funding your apprentice. Here’s how

How to reserve apprenticeship funding on The Apprenticeship Service

Micro, small and medium enterprises now have access to The Apprentice Service, and are required to reserve funding for new starts on an apprenticeship Standard.

At The Grimsby Institute we want to be able to support you to use the service, and to be able to reserve and make optimum use of apprenticeship funding. We can reserve funds on your behalf, but in order to do this you must send us a request via an Apprenticeship Service account (TAS).

Step 1 - Visit the following link to begin setting-up an Apprenticeship account, the whole process only takes 2-3 minutes
Step 2 - Registering an account requires your 'accounts office' and 'PAYE Scheme' reference numbers.
Step 3 - Once registration is complete, you should be able to access the main dashboard page of your apprenticeship account.
Step 4 - Access the ‘provider permissions’ section of the account, and there will be an option to allow a training provider to reserve funding on your behalf. You will require our ‘unique provider reference number’ (UKPRN) which is 10007938. You will also be required to select the month the apprentice will start, and to select the title of the required apprenticeship programme.
Step 5 - The system will then send a request to our compliance team, and we will enter details on your behalf to reserve apprenticeship funding.
Step 6 - After we have done this you will receive an Email/request from the apprenticeship service asking you to review the details we have input on your behalf, giving you the opportunity to accept or decline our request for funding.
Step 7 - Providing details are correct, accept the request and we will ‘double lock’ to draw apprenticeship funding from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA).
Step 8 - If the apprentice does not begin or leaves the programme at any point, funding will cease.

If you have any issues setting up an account, we would be more than happy to guide you through the process. Please contact Grimsby Institute Apprenticeship Team on 0800 012 6656.