What is the levy?

Back in April 2017, the government introduced a new 'apprenticeship levy', to be paid by employers in the public and private sectors whose pay bill is over £3 million.

Why was the levy introduced?

The levy was introduced to encourage organisations to think about their future skills needs and invest in skills, using apprenticeships as a way of meeting those needs. The levy is a mandatory tax for those employers who pay it. However, they in turn have an opportunity to draw on levy funding for apprenticeship training through a new account as part of the Apprenticeship Service - the University can recoup some of the value of its levy payment by choosing apprenticeships as a way of filling its skills gaps

What does the levy mean for the University?

From April 2017, the University of Warwick will be one of the organisations paying the levy. Our priority is to ensure that we get as much value as we can from this - we'd like to use our levy funds to pay for internal staff development.

However, there is another important opportunity resulting from introduction of the levy; businesses will be looking to spend their own levy creating new business opportunities for the University as a provider of apprenticeships at higher and degree levels.