With Small and Medium-Size Enterprises (SME) employers making up 98% of the construction industry and employing 72% of construction apprentices, the Pledge & Transfer Apprenticeship Funds service gives construction employers like you an opportunity to ensure that as much Apprenticeship Levy funding as possible is being used to support your skills needs.

During this webinar the Department for Education (DfE) team that developed the new service will demonstrate how to use the function from a SME employer’s perspective. This will include how to view currently available pledged funds and how to apply for these funds. There will also be an opportunity for a Q&A session during the webinar.

What is the Pledge & Transfer Apprenticeship Funds service?

Plans to create the new service were first announced as part of the Prime Minister’s Skill Speech in September 2020, and subsequently within the 2020 Spending Review with the aim of giving employers who pay the Apprenticeship Levy more ways to transfer up to 25% of their own unspent Apprenticeship Levy funds to other employers to support apprenticeships.

As a business of any size, you can use this service to apply for funding from large businesses who pay the Apprenticeship Levy and who want to fund 100% of your apprenticeship training and assessment costs. These large businesses can fund your apprenticeship training by transferring some of their unspent Apprenticeship Levy. Large businesses who want to transfer some of their unspent funds use the service to create pledges setting out the businesses and apprenticeships they would like to support using 4 optional criteria:

  • Location
  • Sector
  • Type of job role
  • Apprenticeship qualification level

Once it has been created each pledge is shown on a public website so that any business can view, search and apply for the available pledged funds.

Please email Ben Hardy via [email protected] to confirm your attendance at the webinar. A Microsoft Teams invitation to the session will be provided to confirmed attendees.