Welcome to the seventh article in our 18 part series on the Apprenticeship Levy. The levy is a new initiative from the Government that aims to create 3 million new apprenticeships by 2020. In recent articles, we’ve talked about who is eligible to contribute to the levy, how smaller businesses can access funds, and how to setup your online portal and start spending money on courses. This time we’re going to be focusing on whether or not it’s possible for you as a business to use levy funds to develop your own learning and development programmes.

This is the sixth article in our 18 piece series on the Apprenticeship Levy. The one thing you should never do with apprenticeships is invest in them for the sake of just making sure that your levy pot is spent. As with any kind of business investment there should always be a clear business need in the first place, with a demonstrable method for ensuring a return on investment.

This is the fifth article in our 18 part series on the Apprenticeship Levy. Along the way, we’ve learned what the Apprenticeship Levy is, who’s eligible to contribute and use the levy, and what levy funds can be spent on. In our last piece, we confirmed that levy funds can be used for both new and existing employees, but must be spent on approved apprentice courses through the Digital Apprenticeship Service (DAS) portal. This piece will be a direct continuation and go into more detail about DAS. Read on to learn how to create a DAS account, how to use it, and how to spend your valuable funds.

This is the fourth article in our 18 piece series on the Apprenticeship Levy. So far, we’ve explored what the Apprenticeship Levy is, who’s eligible for contributions and who has access to the funds. In this piece, we’re going to be expanding on the last point and asking how Apprenticeship Levy funds can be spent. Can they be used to pay wages or cover travel costs? Can they be used to set up an apprenticeship programme or fund apprentices from existing programmes? These are all common questions, so let’s break things down.  

This is the third article in our 18 part series on the Apprenticeship Levy. In our last post, we talked about whether or not it’s okay to use levy funds to train existing staff and what processes are involved.

This time, we’re turning our focus to the fund itself and how it’s generated. If you're eligible to pay into the levy, how is your contribution calculated? And how much of the fund will your business have access to? If you’re not paying into the fund you may still have access to levy funds, but how does that work? 

This is the second article in our 18 part series on the Apprenticeship Levy. In our first post we talked about the levy in general, how it is calculated and what it means for employers. In this article, we’ll be paying particular attention to employers who aren’t quite ready to hire new staff and want to learn whether or not they can use levy funds to train their existing employees.

This is the first article in an 18 part series on the Apprenticeship Levy. In this series we’ll be exploring what the Apprenticeship Levy means for employers, looking at everything from how the levy is calculated and who has to pay it, to what it can be spent on and how it can be used strategically. However, we’re going to begin the series by asking the most basic of questions to set the scene - what is the Apprenticeship Levy and where did it come from?

This is the final post in our twenty-part series on how to accelerate your career in your twenties and this time we’re talking about complacency. Complacency sets in when we allow ourselves to get too comfortable at work and it can sometimes happen without us even realising. In this series of articles we’ve talked about risk-taking, ambition, proactive learning and leadership - all of which boil down to this idea of not letting ourselves get too comfortable.

May 1st 2017 brings great new opportunities for employers looking to invest in their workforce.  I was recently asked to talk on a local radio station in the Sheffield Region to talk about the benefits of learning & development and apprenticeships to employers.  The questions and responses are below...

Having been to various events and held many meetings over the last few weeks it's time to share some of the frightening comments and positive experiences I've had around the apprenticeship levy from both training providers and employers. Hopefully this helps inform some of your thinking and planning now we're in apprenticeship levy land.