As one of London’s top colleges, we work closely with businesses of all sizes to enable employers to recruit apprentices and support the training of their staff.
The Government has recently announced new financial incentives for employers in England. You are now able to apply for a payment of £3,000 for apprentices with an employment start date from 1 October 2021 to 31 March 2022.
If your apprentice is aged between 16 and 18 or under 25 and has an EHCP (Education and Health Care Plan) or has been in the care of their local authority, you will be eligible for a further £1000 incentive.
If your business is looking to hire an apprentice under this scheme, contact us today.
We have extensive experience in supporting Apprenticeships within a wide range of London businesses, and provide a free end-to-end service for employers. We also work with our network of business partners to set up opportunities for work experience placements, guest speakers, industry visits, tours and workshops.
In addition, we provide professional development training courses which can be tailored to the individual requirements of businesses and used to train new staff, up-skill existing employees or develop senior managers.
Apprenticeships
-
Hiring an Apprentice
The first step for employers interested in hiring an Apprentice is to fill in our Enquiry Form. Our Apprenticeships team will then get in touch to start the process.
We will work with you to understand your business needs, your future growth potential and any skills gaps within your organisation. Together, we will then develop a high quality Apprenticeship programme which will bring the right talent and skills into your business, ensuring that this programme meets the relevant Apprenticeship standard.
Our free end-to-end Apprenticeship service includes:
- Conducting an initial consultation to discuss your business needs
- Providing advice on funding including levy spend
- Writing the job specification for your Apprenticeship role
- Promoting your vacancy
- Matching your business with appropriate candidates from our talent pool
- Shortlisting and interviewing applicants
- Delivering tailored training which complements the on-the-job training provided in your business
- Handling your Apprentice’s assessment and certification
-
Benefits of hiring an Apprentice
Hiring an Apprentice can enable employers to build a motivated workforce with the skills needed to grow their business and help it adapt to evolving industry needs. Some of the benefits for employers include:
- Filling a skills gap by bringing in people trained with the specific skills the business needs Improving staff morale and retention: apprentices are usually loyal to the company that trained them, and 92% of employers of apprentices say they lead to a more motivated and satisfied workforce
- Increasing productivity: the average apprenticeship completer increases business productivity by £214 per week
- Injecting talent and new ideas into the business: Apprentices often bring strong IT and social media skills which enable companies to stay on top of the ever-changing digital landscape
- Reducing external training and agency/recruitment costs Upskilling existing employees (who can do an Apprenticeship at any age)
-
Why choose Lewisham College as your training provider?
- Free end-to-end consultancy service with full support throughout the
- Apprenticeship Flexible delivery: our Apprenticeships can start at any time of the year
- We are rated an ‘outstanding’ apprenticeship provider with an achievement rate 14% above the national average according to the government’s Education and Skills Funding Agency
- We are part of NCG, the UK’s largest college group and a leading provider of high quality apprenticeships
-
Funding Apprenticeships
The Apprenticeship Levy was introduced in 2017 as part of the government’s goal of creating 3 million Apprenticeships by 2020. The amount of funding your organisation receives for Apprenticeship training will depend on whether you pay the apprenticeship levy, which is determined by your pay bill.
- If you have a wage bill over £3 million:
You will pay the Apprenticeship Levy, which is 0.5% of your pay bill, through HMRC, and receive a £15,000 allowance to offset the levy. You can use the money in your levy account to pay for training with an approved provider. - If you have a wage bill under £3 million:
You will not pay the levy. Instead, as from 1 April 2019, you will pay 5% towards the cost of training and assessing your Apprentice, with the government paying 95%.
(For Apprenticeships that started prior to 1 April 2019, you will continue to pay 10% towards the cost of training and assessing your Apprentice with the government paying 90%. This rate will continue until your Apprentice completes their training.)
There are also additional incentives for employers taking on 16-18-year-old Apprentices:
- If you employ under 500 employees, the government will fully fund Apprenticeships for 16-18-year-old Apprentices
- All employers are eligible to receive a £1,000 incentive payment for each 16-18-year-old Apprentice they take on. Payments are made to employers by the training provider in two equal instalments at 3 and 12 months. (This incentive also applies to 19-24 year olds who have previously been in care or have a Local Authority Education, Health and Care plan) Visit www.gov.uk/guidance/apprenticeship-funding-rules-for-employers for full details of Apprenticeship funding for employers.
- If you have a wage bill over £3 million:
Work experience & placements
Taking on a student for work experience can have significant benefits for your business as well as for the student. Work experience students have an existing level of industry-related knowledge from their vocational studies and can provide very useful additional capacity on projects and tasks. They often bring fresh ideas and approaches which employers may not have previously considered, and skills in areas such as social media which can deliver a real business benefit.
Managing and supporting a work experience student can also be a useful opportunity within the business for staff wanting to take on a supervisory role in the future.
Industry placements are an excellent way of increasing your connection to the way the future workforce in your sector is educated, as well as giving you access to a stream of future talent. Our students who have done a successful work placement are frequently asked to continue the placement over a longer period, fitting in with the demands of their course, and ultimately to take on a permanent role with their placement provider at the end of their course.
We organise placements for students across our diverse range of subject areas. If you are interested in taking on a work placement student, just fill in our Enquiry form and we will get in touch to discuss your requirements.
Bespoke training for businesses
We offer training courses and coaching designed to meet specific needs within businesses. This includes both developing bespoke training courses and adapting existing programmes, with training provided either at our campuses or on your company premises.
Employability skills training
We offer a wide range of Job Centre Plus (JCP) courses aimed at giving people who are currently unemployed the skills they need to enter or re-enter the workplace. These include courses in essential skills such as money and finance, IT, customer service, and English and maths, as well as qualifications aimed at specific sectors such as construction and adult care.
More opportunities
We are always keen to draw on our partnerships with businesses to enrich the experience of our students through guest talks, visits to relevant organisations and workshops delivered by businesses. Many of these have been running successfully for a number of years and are a great way for businesses to engage with students, making a connection with their potential future workforce.
If you’d like to talk to us about arranging a talk, visit, tour or workshop, just get in touch by filling in our Enquiry form.
