Funding an apprentice / Incentives

You can get help from the government to pay for apprenticeship training.

The amount you get depends on whether you pay the apprenticeship levy or not. You pay the levy if you are an employer with a pay bill over £3 million each year.

If you are a Levy paying Employer:

As an employer with a wage bill of more than £3 million, you are required to pay the apprenticeship Levy. You can manage funds using the apprenticeship service and spend it on training and assessing your apprentices.

The government will apply a 10% top up to the funds you have in your account.

If you don’t have enough funds, you will pay 5% of the outstanding balance and the government will pay the other 95%. This is up to the funding band maximum allocated to each specific apprenticeship.

If you exceed the funding band maximum, you will need to pay all the additional costs.

If you don’t already have an account, find out how to set up an apprenticeship service account as an employer.

For Non – Levy Employers

As an employer that doesn’t pay the apprenticeship Levy, you may need to pay just 5% towards the cost of training and assessing an apprentice.

If you employ fewer than 50 employees, the government will pay 100% of the apprenticeship training costs up to the funding band maximum for apprentices aged:

  • 16 to 18
  • 19 to 24 with an education, health and care plan provided by their local authority or has been in the care of their local authority

If you do not qualify for 100% of the funding we will negotiate with you how you can pay the remaining 5%

If you exceed the funding band maximum, you’ll need to pay all the additional costs.

For any new Apprenticeship recruits from April 1st 2021, all non levy Employers will need to set up a service account to enrol an apprentice. For further information, click here.

There are additional government incentives available for recruiting a new Apprentice. See below for information.

Incentives Available

The government will pay an incentive to every employer of £1000 if you recruit an apprentice aged 16-18 or under the age of 25 if they have an education, health and care plan.

Please click here for the Apprenticeship courses on offer.

There may be other local initiatives that our specialist advisors will be able to discuss with you on enquiry.

Apprenticeship Links:

Riverside College Apprenticeships Ofsted Outstanding