Major businesses are supporting the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s drive for more apprenticeships, by redirecting funding to smaller organisations.
This comes after, last year, the Mayor of the city region called on big companies to transfer their unspent Apprenticeship Levy to smaller local businesses, to support further apprenticeships. Currently, large employers are required to spend 0.5% of their wage bill towards the levy, with Liverpool City Region using the Combined Authority Employer Brokerage Team to transfer unspent levy investment to smaller organisations that might benefit more from what would be lost funding.
Around the country, there is a levy underspend of around £4 billion, with this being recovered by the government if it is not spent. In Liverpool alone, this underspend is estimated to be in the hundreds of millions, and the funding would be better spent by local businesses that can offer employment and training for local communities.
Mayor of the Liverpool City Region, Steve Rotheram, commented:
“I am delighted that so many employers have stepped up to invest millions of pounds from unspent Levy funds into skills and training, which we always need more of. Funding new apprenticeships at smaller, local businesses, means that this initiative is equipping the next generation of workers with the skills they need to succeed, while contributing to the local economy.
“I’ve talked a lot about collaboration, and this is another fantastic example of what we can achieve when we work together. I’m proud that our partnerships have helped create over a thousand opportunities for local people to build brighter futures.”
Some of the organisations that have contributed to this include Liverpool Football Club, Amazon, and Airbus, with each company funding 120, 64, and 99 new apprenticeship roles respectively. As part of the wider initiative, the combined authority is now working alongside 23 employers that use the levy to drive this number up even more.
Thanks to this work, and other initiatives such as the Mayor’s Young Person’s Guarantee and the UCAS-style Be More apprenticeship and careers portal, have resulted in the creation of more than 10,000 jobs and 7,000 apprenticeships over the course of the past six years. The impact of this on the city region is seen in the fact that, according to the combined authority, there is an average return on investment of £27 for every £1 spent.
This means that the levy transfers that have already been done have created an approximately £189 million of benefit.
Image credit: Liverpool City Region Combined Authority and iStock
