Sector Focus
Skills Apprenticeship Levy is a mystery
Almost 40 per cent of all West Midlands employers have not heard about the government’s new Apprenticeship Levy, which is due to be introduced next April. The initiative – under which the government proposes to apply a levy to
large employers across all industries – was announced by former Chancellor George Osborne last year. According to a new survey by British Chambers of Commerce (BCC), there
is a considerable amount of ignorance and confusion about the new initiative. Some 37 per cent of West Midlands businesses who responded to the
survey said they had not heard about the Apprenticeship Levy, or had any understanding of it.
‘The success of the levy will be determined by business take-up’
Nearly half (48 per cent) responded that they hadn’t heard about, or had no understanding of, the way apprenticeship funding policy would work. The results of the survey in the West Midlands are similar
to the national picture. Other key findings from the region include 44 per cent of respondents saying that the Apprenticeship reforms would have no impact upon their recruitment of apprentices, and half (50 per cent) said the reforms would have no impact upon their wider training budget. Paul Faulkner, chief executive of the Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, said: “These statistics highlight a number of concerns which businesses have regarding the Apprenticeship Levy. Prominent amongst them is a strong feeling that government has not done enough to ensure that the business community is engaged with the details of the levy and the wider apprenticeship reforms. “Considering the scale and importance of the policy, this is a worrying signal that Government cannot afford to miss.
The success of the levy will be determined by business take-up so it is clear that the Government needs to work harder to explain the upcoming changes and outline the opportunities for businesses in order to increase engagement.” Marcus Mason, head of education and skills at the BCC, said: “The Government needs to ensure that businesses understand how they
could benefit from the reforms, because if it just feels like yet another tax then then the policy will have failed. “The Government should allow businesses to use the Levy funding
Marcus Mason: firms value apprenticeships
to support other high-quality workplace training or there is a risk of displacing other valid forms of training. “Fundamentally, treating apprenticeships as a numbers game would benefit neither businesses nor apprentices themselves. It is really important that government communicates to businesses the value of the levy in terms of its use to drive up the quality of on-the- job training and development.”
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54 CHAMBERLINK November 2016
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