At the beginning of the month, at the Conservative party conference, the chancellor announced that big employers will be able to hand up to 25% of apprenticeship levy funds to their supply chain. This will begin in April 2019, and is a noticeable increase on the current level. as businesses can currently only pass on 10% of their levy funds.
This change has come as an attempt to increase and improve workplace training. Alongside the changes to the apprenticeship levy, the party also announced that they will be expanding the range of courses available. This growth is due to come as the number of people assessing courses in STEM subjects, transport, and healthcare increase. The chancellor explained that this will be done through the promise of investing £125m of new funding into jobs and apprenticeships.
The apprenticeship levy is making good progress, with 1.41 million apprenticeships having been started since May 2015. Furthermore, the amount of starts reported in the first three quarters of 2017/18 (118,500) were more than ten-times higher than the same period the previous year.
By increasing the amount of subjects available for apprentices to take, in addition to making the apprenticeship levy more flexible for businesses to use, apprenticeships will continue to be one of the most beneficial ways to train staff for both employee and employer.