Call for large businesses to transfer unspent apprenticeship levy to the early years sector

June O’Sullivan, chief executive of the London Early Years Foundation (LEYF), made the call to coincide with National Apprenticeship Week (8 to 14 February).

She said that such a move would enable early years apprentices to undertake essential training and help get young people back into work.

Meanwhile, the Men in the Early Years (MITEY) campaign is calling for more early years providers and training organisations to reach out and recruit more male apprentices during this week.

Nearly 5,000 big businesses failed to spend all the money allocated to them for staff training through the levy scheme, leading to more than £400m in funds expiring and being returned to the Government between May and December 2019.

With the Government extending the amount of time employers have to spend their levy funds from 18 to 24 months before they expire, levy-paying employers can now transfer up to 25 per cent of their levy funds to other employers – especially to those smaller organisations struggling to fund vital apprenticeships.

Currently, unspent levy funds within each financial year are used to support existing apprentices to complete their training, pay for apprenticeship training for smaller employers and extra payments to support apprentices.

Ms O’Sullivan said, ‘The early years sector is essential for working families, young children and our economic recovery and must be properly supported rather than hung out to dry. If we can’t afford to train new apprentices then this puts another huge strain on the sector and significantly reduces the number of apprentices we take on and limits the pipeline of newly qualified staff.

‘What’s holding back large companies from sharing their levy is that they are either unaware of how the levy works and how it’s routinely expires without being used, or they are finding a loop hole to train their graduates in a new skill that will benefit their company without it affecting their salary costs – which is morally wrong. With approximately 1.72 million unemployed people in the UK, surely the right thing to do is help support the economy and other businesses by transferring unwanted levy funds and get people back into work.’