Apprenticeship support

If you are considering doing an apprenticeship

An apprenticeship is a great choice for anyone starting out in employment, but it can also help you gain additional skills and qualifications to progress within your chosen career. You will be able to gain skills, knowledge and expertise in a specific business area, while gaining qualifications and earning at the same time.

We can:

• Work with you to look at your current skills, match them with the requirements of employers and job roles and equip you with what you need to succeed.
• Support you to find suitable courses and vacancies.
• Support you to boost your English, maths and digital skills.
• Offer friendly coaching, mentoring and advice.

If you are considering employing an apprentice

As an employer, hiring an apprentice allows you to invest in the future by bringing in talent that fits your business needs and anticipated future skills gaps.

Some useful information:

• Age: apprentices can start from age 16 (or 15 if their 16th birthday is between the last Friday of June and 31 August), with no upper age limit.
• Wages: you must pay apprentices at least the National Minimum Wage. Learn more about pay and conditions for apprentices at Employing an apprentice.
• Existing employees: existing employees can also become apprentices to enhance their skills.
• Training duration: an apprenticeship must include on-the-job and off-the-job training that lasts at least 12 months.
• Time allocation: apprentices typically spend 80% of their time on the job, learning and gaining experience, and 20% off-the-job training, which may be at the workplace, a college, or with a training provider.

Hiring apprentices could help your business to:

• Offer on-the-job training in a safe working environment.
• Build a culture of learning and development.
• Enjoy higher staff retention and morale.
• Promote diversity and inclusion in the workplace.
• Train a workforce to meet current skill gaps.
• Embed a culture of career progression.

If you are a smaller employer, you are eligible for government funding which will pay between 95% and 100% of the apprentice training costs. If you are a large employer, you can use your levy to pay for your apprenticeship training.

Funding support: Apprenticeship Levy

Businesses with a payroll of more than £3 million, are required to pay a National Apprenticeship Levy. Levy-paying employers can use this to fund their own apprenticeship training costs but can also transfer unalloced levy funds to benefit smaller non-levy paying employers. This means that small to medium enterprises (SMEs), that do not pay into the Apprenticeship Levy, could therefore access fully funded apprenticeship training, by applying for this levy transfer.

Working together with West Yorkshire Combined Authority, our team can support you through this process.

We can also:

• Review your recruitment processes to help maximise the number of applicants.
• Promote your current vacancies to local candidates looking for employment.
• Help manage applications and pass these on for your consideration.
• Support transitions into the workplace through in-work support.

If you're considering employing an apprentice and need support in sourcing qualifications, accessing the levy transfer, or want to discuss your wider recruitment needs, our employer support team can help you with this. Find out more at Employer support.

If you are looking for an apprenticeship within the council

At Kirklees Council we're passionate about training people for our future workforce and as a result, we offer some fantastic apprenticeships within the council. If you're interested in working with us you can find out more about becoming an apprentice with the council on our website.