Business Update - Issue 44 (May 2019)
Updated 1 November 2021
Applies to England
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1. All employers in England to have better access to buy high quality apprenticeships
Small and medium sized businesses, who do not pay the apprenticeship levy, will take full control over apprenticeships in their business as they come on board the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s (ESFA) award-winning apprenticeship service.
Every apprenticeship employer in England will soon have access to the full benefits of the ESFA’s apprenticeship service, with the first employers and providers commencing their use from summer 2019.
Currently, only apprenticeship levy-paying employers - those with an annual total pay bill of over £3m - or those in receipt of a transfer of apprenticeship funds - are able to use the full benefits that the apprenticeship service brings.
Whilst all other employers (those who do not pay the levy) have had access to some of the functions, such as ‘find an apprenticeship’, ESFA is opening up the apprenticeship service to employers of all size, regardless of whether they pay the levy or not. This will provide employers with the choice over how they want to control the use of apprenticeships and make them work for their business.
Over the course of the next year, all employers will be able to control how they pay for their apprenticeship training and assess and recruit their apprentices. They will also have access to a larger pool of training providers to deliver more relevant training for them.
2. Recognised prior learning feedback and webinar
In March, we published guidance providing more detail on how providers, employers and apprentices should account for prior learning, and why this an important aspect of delivering high quality apprenticeships.
We are now seeking feedback to understand the impact of the guidance as this will help us to refine our guidance and future publications.
Please complete our short survey to make your feedback count, the survey closes on 16 June.
We will hold a webinar discussing initial assessment and the recognition of prior learning on Wednesday 26 June 2019.
The webinar will start at 14:00 and will last for around 45 minutes including time for questions. For more information and to register, please see our webinar registration page.
Please share the survey and webinar details with any interested stakeholders.
3. New package of support for employers announced to support industry placements
On Sunday 19 May 2019, the department announced a new package of support to encourage more employers offer industry placements in readiness for the T Level rollout in September 2020.
The package includes:
- guidance to support employers and providers to offer industry placements, allowing industry placements to be undertaken with up to 2 employers
- recording placements in hours (at least 315) rather than days
- a pilot scheme to understand more about employer support
- ‘how to’ guides and workshops
For more information about the announcement, please see the T Level industry placements guidance.
We have also published 2 industry placement short films: film 1 and film 2
If you want to find out more about industry placements please contact 08000 150 600 or tlevel.placement@education.gov.uk.
4. Reporting progress against the public sector apprenticeship target
From 1 April 2019, public sector employers in scope of the target with 250 or more employees in England can report their progress for the second year through the apprenticeship service.
You can access the form by visiting the apprenticeships tab from the homepage of your apprenticeship service account.
For more information on who is in scope of the target and what you are required to report, please read our guidance.
Employers with queries about how to complete the apprenticeship service report can contact the National Contact Centre on 08000 150 600 or email helpdesk@manage-apprenticeships.service.gov.uk.
On Tuesday 21 May, we delivered a webinar to public sector bodies informing them how to report their progress on the public sector apprenticeship target using the apprenticeship service. You can listen to an uploaded recording of the webinar on YouTube.
You can also read our blog on public sector reporting.
5. Apprenticeships: off-the-job training
We have published a guide on how employers and training providers should meet the 20% off-the-job training requirement for apprentices.
6. Post-18 review of education and funding: independent panel report
The post-18 review was announced in February 2018. An independent panel, chaired by Dr Philip Augar published its findings in a report on 30 May 2019. The report contains a chapter on apprenticeships making 8 recommendations.