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Five reasons to gift unspent apprenticeship levy

Metroline apprentices looking at a bus engine.
Apprenticeships Employers Blogs

No one likes to waste money, especially if you’re running a business, but did you know billions of pounds worth of wasted employer cash has been returned to the Treasury? 

Between May 2019 and March 2021, nearly £2bn of employers’ levy funds expired because employers were unable to spend the money themselves on apprenticeships, according to research by CIPD. 

That’s funding which could have made a real difference to the lives of people looking to start an apprenticeship or wanting to upskill. 

If you’re are large employer that’s not sure what to do with your remaining funds, here are five reasons to gift unspent apprenticeship levy. 

1.Use it before you lose it  

The apprenticeship levy is a tax on UK employers with an annual wage bill over £3 million or more. However, funds that aren’t used by the employer within two years expire and are passed back to the government. 

If you haven’t been able to use up your apprenticeship contributions so far, then levy gifting could be the solution for you. Instead of simply returning unused funds to the government, you could ‘gift’ up to 25 per cent of your funding to help smaller businesses. 

2. Corporate Social Responsibility 

When it comes to Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), it’s important to direct your funds in a way that offers both positive impact to society and to the economy.  

Levy gifting can help you form relationships with other organisations, build your reputation as a caring brand and support your CSR agenda. In doing so, you’ll be having a huge social impact by both solving recruitment needs while also investing in apprenticeships and allowing smaller businesses to grow their own talent. 

3.Futureproof your chosen sector 

Gifting unspent levy enables you to support apprenticeships in a particular sector.  

With lots of sectors facing an impending skills shortage, apprenticeships can help target training where a business needs it the most and train the next generation of employees to gain crucial skills for that industry and become the employers of tomorrow.   

Our employer partner, Metroline, has gifted £300k to help the next generation of automotive and electrical engineers. 

4.Help small employers 

With funding for smaller employers is being reduced year on year, any gifted funds go directly to benefit individuals. Apprenticeships enable employers to grow their own talent, ensuring that their business develops staff who fit with the company’s ethos, values and practices.  

Gifting some of your unspent levy to smaller employers can make a huge difference. An apprentice could be a future leader, and with apprenticeships standards teaching current industry best practice, you can be sure that the skills they gain through your gift are relevant and compliant.  

5.It’s easy! 

Our dedicated Levy Gifting team do all the hard work for you and can help you to access the right funding for your workforce. They can guide you through the entire process, report regularly on your gifted funds and help you every step of the way.  

We already working with large employers including BP, Hermes UK and G4S and have a rigorous process in place to help you transfer unspent funds.   

Contact our Levy Gifting manager, Beckie Holmes, on 0161 674 8756 to find out how we can help you. 

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