Stephen Timms – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Stephen Timms on 2016-06-06.

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what support his Department is offering to small and medium-sized enterprises to assist with the cost of setting up an apprenticeship programme.

Nick Boles

The government provides £1,500 per apprentice to smaller employers taking on new apprentices aged 16-24 through the Apprenticeships Grant for Employers. Additional support provided for employers includes funding training for 16-18 year old apprentices, those young people who are aged 19-24 who have been in the care of the Local Authority, apprentices with additional learning needs, and apprentices who don’t have the level of English and maths that is required to meet the minimum standard. Further funding detail and provisional funding rates are due to be published in June.

Since April, employers have not been required to pay employer National Insurance contributions for almost all apprentices aged under 25 up to the Upper Secondary Threshold (£827 per week in 2016-17).

This change makes the business case for apprenticeships even stronger, reducing the cost of employing a young apprentice by over £500 a year on a salary of £12,000, and over £1,000 a year on a salary of £16,000.

Employers can access information about employing an apprentice on the gov.uk website https://www.gov.uk/take-on-an-apprentice

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