AGE 16 and 17 (Apprenticeship Grant for Employers)
As you may have seen, a recent announcement was made for additional funding to be made available to support employers to take on apprentices where wage costs have previously prohibited them participating in the programme. Nationally £12.5 million has been made available to support 5000 additional apprentices. The £2,500 per apprentice is in addition to the cost of training which for young people (aged 16 - 18) is already fully met by the National Apprenticeship Service.
The Association of Colleges (AoC) and the Association of Learning Providers (ALP), both of whom are supportive of this initiative to help more young people find employment through the Apprenticeship Programme but recognise the challenges we face to achieve the target. The National Apprenticeship Service is committed to working closely with both the AoC and ALP and colleges and training providers across the country as we roll out the AGE 16 and 17 initiative.
Attached is a fact sheet for your information, which contains the detail of the initiative, who is eligible and how the initiative will be implemented. A provider page on the Apprenticeship website (www.apprenticeships.org.uk) has all the information you need including a fact sheet. http://www.apprenticeships.org.uk/Partners/AGE-16and17.aspx
If you are an approved training provider you will be responsible for processing payments to employers. Employers will receive two prompt payments - £1,500 when the young person starts their Apprenticeship programme and a further £1,000 after 12 weeks. We will endeavour to ensure that you are not financially out of pocket and are able to process payment to employers promptly. Further details on the process to be used are also contained within the fact sheet and further information / documentation will be available on the website shortly.
The Grant is available immediately and we are very keen to maximise the number of apprentices who gain opportunities out of this initiative. All funding needs to be committed before the end of March – no starts after the 31st March 2010 can be supported. This means that the apprentice will need to be employed and registered (through the ILR) by 31st March 2010. We would therefore appreciate your support in achieving this and whilst formal media activity will not be starting until 1st February 2010, we would encourage you to start to consider how you could communicate this initiative to all your employers. Whilst the Grant is not available for existing apprentices it is available to SMEs who can take on additional numbers.
The Provider fact sheet can be viewed here
