Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Innovation and Skills, what support he is providing to businesses to help them take on an apprentice.

We are committed to 3 million apprenticeship starts during this parliament. Our priority is to work with employers to increase the number of apprenticeships they offer. The Government is investing £1.5 billion during the 2014/15 academic year.

Apprenticeships are paid jobs with quality training. The Government currently fully funds apprenticeship training for 16 – 18 year olds and up to 50% of training for over 19s. In addition from April 2016 employers will not be required to pay employer National Insurance contributions for apprentices under 25 on earnings up to the upper earnings limit.

The Apprenticeship Grant for Employers (AGE) currently helps small businesses (with less than 50 employees) to take on up to 5 new young apprentices aged 16 – 24 by providing payments of £1,500 per apprentice.

The Government is introducing a UK-wide levy to help fund the increase in quantity and quality of apprenticeship training. The levy will raise money to fund increases in apprenticeship numbers and quality and will be entirely funded by the contributors.