Employers: What is an Apprenticeship?

Investing in an apprentice is a great way of attracting enthusiastic talent with fresh ideas.

Apprenticeships are a tried and tested way to recruit new staff, retrain or up-skill existing staff. Also this can be done in your workplace, minimising disruption and maximising impact. We also find that hiring an apprentice is a great way of increasing loyalty as the learner has started their career with the practice and has more of a sense of duty to the employer who gave them their first start.

Great Value!

Apprenticeships are excellent value. If you’re a non-levy employer you only pay 5% of course costs with the Government paying 95%. And if you’re an SME employer (under 50 PAYE staff), you can access free training for 16-21-year olds.

All employers will receive a £1,000 incentive for each 16-18-year-old apprentice taken on and employers are not responsible for paying Employers NIC for any apprentices under the age of 25  - saving you 13.8% of the annual salary of the apprentice. e.g. for an apprentice on a wage of £12,000 PA you would make a saving of £740 of tax contribution over the duration of the programme.

Wages

Also employers can choose to pay the apprenticeship wage of £6.40 per hour for the first 12 months which makes the cost of funding an apprentices wage manageable.  Having said that we would always recommend taking in to account the apprentices’ personal circumstances when agreeing their wage. 

Course Fees - Payable by Employer

What is required from you as an employer?

An apprentice should be employed for a minimum of 30 hours a week to complete the course in the suggested timescales. The learners will require 20% (Minimum 6 hours) of their working week for “off the job” training*. This consist of compulsory 1.5 hours webinar attendance once a week with the remainder of their 6 hours taken during the rest of the working week enabling flexibility for the practice to cope with the demands of a normal working week.

Workplace observations are spread across the course to ensure minimal disruption to the practice. An initial workplace is carried out to check the learner and their mentor are happy with the course, support them with any queries and to complete the practice Health & Safety check.

*The 20% (minimum 6 hours) off the job training does not include learner reviews (undertaken with the learner, portfolio manager/mentor & assessor) or Maths and English support. These will be undertaken separately, and will be arranged in advance with the learner’s portfolio assessor.