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Apprenticeship levy funding
Maximising your Apprenticeship Levy investment
Apprenticeship Levy Funding
The Apprenticeship Levy Funding information on this page is for employers who have an annual payroll of £3,000,000 or more. If your payroll is less than this figure then you should view our Non-Apprenticeship Levy Funding pages.
Funding for Levy Apprenticeships can be quite complex if you still have questions after reading this page, please contact us.
About the apprenticeship levy
The Apprenticeship Levy started on the 6th of April 2017. Since then, employers in any sector with an annual payroll of over £3 million have to pay a Levy charged at a rate of 0.5% of annual payroll.
This is estimated at only 2% of businesses in England will pay the Levy. The levy is collected monthly and is paid to HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) through the Pay as You Earn (PAYE) process.
You can spend your apprenticeship levy using your Digital Apprenticeship Service account and monies can only be used to fund approved apprenticeships. All NowSkills apprenticeships are approved and eligible to be funded with apprenticeship levy monies view the Digital Apprenticeship Service.
Your available Levy funds will be adjusted to reflect the proportion of your English based employees. The UK government also uplift your available funds by 10%, for example, if you pay £1,000 into your levy account, you will have £1,100 available to spend.
Your levy funds will have an expiration date of 24 months, and any unused funds will be claimed by HM Treasury.
If you spend all of your apprenticeship levy, you can still enrol apprentices, and the proportion of the outstanding training costs will automatically receive 95% funding. This process is automated and NowSkills will invoice your organisation 5% of the outstanding balance. For example, if £8,000 is unfunded, your organisation will pay £400 to cover this cost*.
*ESFA funding rules require all apprenticeship training providers to charge 5% co-investment, they cannot discount or offset the co-investment.
Apprenticeship funding bands
Funding bands correct at 31st July 2024
Apprenticeship Standard | Level | Funding Band | Duration |
| Information Communications Technician | 3 | £15,000 | 16 months |
| Multi Channel Marketer | 3 | £11,000 | 16 months |
| Content Creator | 3 | £10,000 | 16 months |
| Network Engineer | 4 | £17,000 | 20 months |
| Data Technician | 3 | £12,000 | 16 months |
| Data Analyst | 4 | £15,000 | 20 months |
| Business Analyst | 4 | £18,000 | 20 months |
We are proud to work with leading employers:
How Much do Apprenticeship Levy employers pay?
| Employee Size or Payroll | Apprentice Age (at start) | Apprenticeship Funded? | Training Costs (Paid by Employer) | Additional Payment to Employer | Wage (Paid by Employer) |
+£3m payroll using only levy funds | 16, 17 or 18 | Paid from the levy until it has been used up then it will be co-funded | 100% or 5% | £1,000 | Yes |
| 19+ | 100% or 5% | £0 | Yes | ||
Apprentice Wages
Apart from training costs, you will also need to pay your apprentice’s wages and an apprentice must be employed for a minimum of 30 hours per week. You can pay more than the minimum, most employers do.
Tax Relief on Apprentice Wages
If you employ an apprentice under the age of 25, you may no longer have to pay employer Class 1 National Insurance contributions on their earnings up to the new Apprentice Upper Secondary Threshold.
We’re here to support you
At NowSkills, we’re here to support employers. Please contact our Employer Partner Team using one of the following methods:
Phone: 0345 556 4170 or complete our contact form here.
