From April 2020, small businesses (non-levy payers) will be able to access the same Digital Account Service as levy employers, giving them the opportunity to have more control over apprenticeship training decisions for their business.
Currently, only large employers with an annual total pay bill of over £3 million who pay the levy can use the online apprenticeship account service to access training funds generated through the policy.
The government contribution of 95% towards the cost of apprenticeship training for companies with a pay bill of less than £3 million still remains, but the way in which small business will be able to manage and access funds will be changing.
Moving non-levy employers onto the Digital Account Service will give small and medium sized businesses the ability to ring fence apprenticeship training funds six months in advance of the system going live (that’s November 2019), allowing them to manage their apprenticeship training costs more efficiently.
Through the Digital Account Service small employers will be able to:
- Manage their apprenticeship funding
- Ringfence funds they wish to allocate to training
- Select a suitable apprenticeship standard
- Choose a suitable provider to deliver their apprenticeship training
If you need advice on how to set up your Digital Account Service or have any questions regarding how to allocate training funds, please contact us.
