Speaking yesterday at a ‘Skills for Tomorrow’ roundtable organised by Unite, industrial officer Louisa Bull said: “Many employers don’t know that it’s coming, and there are so many that are just not engaged in the whole debate.”
The new Apprenticeship Levy comes into force at the beginning of April 2017. It is part of a government plan to create an additional three million apprentices by 2020.
Firms with a wage bill in excess of £3m will pay a levy of 0.5% on the company’s total wage bill from the start date. All companies, no matter what size, will receive a £15,000 levy allowance.
SME printers have broadly supported the changes.
The BPIF, Confederation of Paper Industries and The Printing Charity also took part in the event, which was organised for union organisers and employers.
BPIF programme director Ursula Daly explained that the funding rules were still in draft, and that HMRC would be providing guidance by the end of the year. The approved list of training providers will not be available until March.
“We are only now getting the detail. For employers and providers this will be close to the wire,” she said.
Clarification on funding rules from the Skills Funding Agency will be released in the new year, and clarification from HRMC is around levy payments and allowance management, this should be released this December.
BPIF chief executive Charles Jarrold said that 95% of the circa 600 apprenticeships currently being delivered by the federation were for SME printers. “A lot of our members are SMEs and they come to us to hand-hold them through that process. However, larger companies can suddenly see the scale of what’s ahead of them,” he noted.
“There will be ramifications and we expect next year to be quiet in terms of signing up new apprentices.”
Neil Lovell, chief executive of The Printing Charity, expressed his hopes that a greater number of the grants made via the charity’s Print Futures Awards would go to future industry apprentices. “We want to increase the number of Print Futures awards to 75 next year, and I appeal to employers to put forward their apprentices.”
Andrew Large, who was appointed as the new director general of the Confederation of Paper Industries just under four months ago, said his part of the industry was keen to capitalise on growth areas such as paper products for hygiene, and packaging for internet retailers.
“A sense of optimism is going to underpin everything we do, along with a sense of community. I think there’s more that organisations can do to become employers of choice in their own communities,” he said.
The new scheme applies to apprentices taken on from 1 May 2017.
The BPIF (@BPIF) will be holding a Twitter Q&A about the Apprenticeship Levy on Wednesday 14 December, from 10am to noon.
