Apprenticeship Funding

Apprenticeship Funding

The cost of each apprenticeship is set by the Government. CPA will advise you of costs prior to any training being delivered. Alternatively, you can find the value of the bands at the following link: Apprenticeship funding bands - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)apprenticeship funding

Apprenticeships are funded differently depending on the size of your organisation. If you are a non-levy paying organisation (with an annual wage bill of less than £3 million) you are eligible for government funding towards the cost of the apprenticeship training. This can cover between 95% and 100% of fees and is known as ‘co-investment’.

The funding flowchart helps illustrate the amount of co-investment funding that your organisation will be entitled to including additional employer support payments for hiring a younger apprentice (or care leaver).

To claim this subsidy, alongside any other incentives, you will need to reserve funding through the digital apprenticeship service.

What is the Digital Apprenticeship Service?

The apprenticeship service, also known as the Digital Apprenticeship Service or the DAS Account, is an online platform created by the ESFA (Education and Skills Funding Agency). It is used by employers and training providers to reserve and administer funding for apprentices. By April 2021 all apprenticeships will be managed through this system.

Creating your Account.

You can create an account with the apprenticeship service at any time before your apprentice starts their training. If you are utilising our free recruitment service, you will need to create your account before we can start the recruitment process.

Construction and Plant Assessments will send you an invitation via the Digital Apprenticeship Service to your email, providing a link direct to the registration form. This will help by pre-populating some of the information for you.

To create an account with the apprenticeship service, you’ll need a Government Gateway login for your business, authority to set up a new PAYE scheme on behalf of your organisation, and be able to accept an employer agreement between your company and the ESFA.

Once you have this information, the account registration process is quite straightforward. The following video link is a useful step by step guide to setting up your account: Registering an account on the apprenticeship service - Bing video

You can add multiple users to your organisation’s apprenticeship service account so you can include colleagues from other departments if you need to.

When setting up your account you can give Construction and Plant Assessments permission to manage certain aspects of your account on your behalf, such as adding apprentices, reserving funding, and recruiting apprentices. Granting Construction and Plant Assessments these permissions will enable us to support you better.

If you do not grant Construction and Plant Assessments permissions you must reserve funding for your apprentice / potential apprentice yourself. This video demonstrates how to complete this step Reserving apprenticeship funds - YouTube

What support is available to employers that are new to this service?

The apprenticeship service offers query handling and technical support via phone, email, SMS, web forms and live web chat. This service, along with a comprehensive range of online help resources, can be accessed via their website

The ESFA have lots of useful ‘how-to’ videos on their YouTube channel esfagovuk - YouTube

CITB Levy and Funding

If you pay into the CITB Levy you may be able to access additional grants for intermediate level apprenticeships. To apply, please contact your local CITB representative. Guidance and help is also available on the CITB website Apprenticeship grants - CITB

Construction and Plant Assessments will not apply for the grant for you but will provide you with the apprenticeship details needed to complete the application, on request. If you wish to pursue this grant it is your responsibility to provide CITB with sufficient evidence to confirm that your apprentice is in training and employment every 13 weeks in order to maintain receipt of payments.

Employers with an apprentice eligible for a CITB apprenticeship grant may also be able to claim a travel and/or accommodation grant towards the cost of traveling to our training centre for block release training. Apprenticeship travel and accommodation funding - Travel to Train | CITB - CITB Please contact your local CITB representative for more information.