From January 2020 employers who do not pay the apprenticeship levy have been able to create accounts on the apprenticeship service and reserve funding to cover the costs of apprenticeship training and assessment. Moving away from the use of Government-procured contracts for apprenticeship training will give smaller employers greater control over their apprenticeship choices.
For the remainder of the 2020-21,the number of ‘active’ or ‘used’ reservations available to non-levy paying employers at any given time will increase from 3 to 10. This enables non-levy paying employers to recruit more apprentices for their businesses through the apprenticeship service. Please see our ‘Digital Apprenticeship Service’ page for further details.

How much it costs:

As an employer that doesn’t pay the apprenticeship levy, you pay just 5% towards the cost of training and assessing an apprentice.

The government will pay the rest up to the funding band maximum.
You’ll pay the training provider directly and agree on a payment schedule.
If you employ fewer than 50 employees, the government will pay 100% of the apprenticeship training costs up to the funding band maximum for apprentices aged:

• 16 to 18
• 19 to 24 with an education, health and care plan provided by their local authority or has been in the care of their local authority

If you exceed the funding band maximum, you’ll need to pay all the additional costs.
If your apprentice started before 1 April 2019, you pay 10% towards the cost of training and assessing your apprentice and the government pays the rest. This rate continues until your apprentice completes their training.