Apprenticeships & work placements: funding on offer

£3,000 payment for every apprentice hired; fully-subsidised work placement scheme extended; ‘flexi-job’ apprenticeships announced.

To speak to one of our Business Advisers on the specifics of any of the below information, call 01494 927130 or email BusinessSupport@bbf.uk.com.

£3,000 payments for each new apprentice hired

Employers will receive £3,000 for every new apprentice of any age who joins their organisation until January 31st 2022.

This marks an extension to the £3,000 incentive offer, which was previously set to end on September 30th 2021. 

To receive the full payment, the apprenticeship must last for at least one year.

The payment is in addition to the existing £1,000 you’ll already get for taking on an apprentice who is:

  • aged 16 to 18 years old
  • under 25 and has an education, health and care plan or has been in the care of their local authority

How to apply

You can apply for the incentive payment after you add new apprentices to your apprenticeship service account. You must set up an apprenticeship service account to apply.

Read more about incentive payments for hiring an apprentice >

Fully-subsidised work placement scheme extended

The Kickstart Scheme aims to create hundreds of thousands of high-quality 6-month work placements for those aged 16 to 24 who are on Universal Credit and are deemed to be at risk of long term unemployment.

Funding available for each job will cover 100% of the relevant National Minimum Wage for 25 hours a week, plus the associated employer National Insurance contributions and employer minimum automatic enrolment contributions.

The scheme now covers work placements that start at any point up until March 31st 2022. This means that if your application is successful, you can spread the work placement start dates up until March 31st 2022.

Work placements will last for six months, so, for example, you’ll get funding until September 30th 2022 if a young person starts their job with you on March 31st 2022.

December deadline to apply to the Kickstart Scheme

Applications must be made by December 17th 2021 in order to access the scheme, regardless of when the work placements will begin.

Learn more about the Kickstart Scheme here.

Flexible apprenticeships - creative and construction among sectors to benefit

New ‘flexi-job’ apprenticeships are to be created to help support industries reliant on short-term freelance workers, and to ensure apprentices are not disadvantaged if their placement comes to an abrupt end. Presently, if an apprentice were to lose their job mid-way through their placement, they would have to start from scratch in a brand new apprenticeship with a new employer.

Under the flexi-job scheme, apprentices could move between employers within the same industry as part of the same apprenticeship placement.

This can be of help to employers in the creative, agriculture and construction industries where jobs can often be on a freelance or contractor-basis and last for two to three months. This means that employers in these sectors often cannot meet the government requirement for apprenticeship placements to last a minimum of 12 months in order to be eligible for apprenticeship funding.

Learn more about flexi-job apprenticeships.

Amazon Apprenticeship Fund launched to create 200 new opportunities in 2021

Amazon has launched a £2.5 million Apprenticeship Fund, using its Apprenticeship Levy to help certain businesses take on their own apprentices.

Eligible businesses include:

  • Small businesses selling on Amazon
  • Amazon Web Services customers
  • Smaller creative industry partners

New available roles include those in digital marketing, business administration, visual effects, AI, software development, data analysis, cyber security and more.

As part of the Amazon Apprenticeship Fund, the company is supporting apprenticeship roles in the creative industries, including film, television, music and publishing.

What is the apprenticeship levy?

All employers with an annual wages bill above £3 million pay the Apprenticeship Levy in order to invest in creating apprenticeships within their organisation. The levy paid is 0.5% of the employer’s annual pay bill.

Employers who have unused apprenticeship funds can transfer up to 25% of their annual funds to other employers to help them create apprenticeship placements.

Read more information on the Amazon Apprenticeship Fund >

Need an explanation of what all of this means for your business?

Our Business Support Team is on hand to answer any questions you have about the above opportunities. Get in touch at BusinessSupport@bbf.uk.com or on 01494 927130.

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