Apprenticeships are a key facilitator of social mobility for young adults who want to start successful careers in sectors such as accountancy and finance.
When non-levy employers (those with annual payroll bills below £3m) were initially moved onto the Apprenticeship Service they were limited to reserving funding for just 3 apprentices at any given point in time. Thankfully this cap was soon increased to 10 learners but many SME’s still quickly reached that limit. Due to pressure from the sector, all non-levy reservation levels were reset to nil on 1 April 2021, and then again on 1 June 2022, allowing non-levy employers to continue recruiting and starting apprentices.
In recent weeks, however, an increasing number of SME’s were again hitting their cap of ten with no clarity about whether there would be a further reset.
Gareth John, Director with First Intuition, met Robert Halfon MP, the Minister for Skills, Apprenticeships and Higher Education at Harlow College on 10 February to lay out some of the issues that the reservation cap was causing for increasing numbers of non-levy employers.
