Supporting smaller employers who do not pay the apprenticeship levy - The Apprenticeship Intermediary Service

What is the Apprenticeship Intermediary Service?

It's a centralised support service delivered by NSAR in partnership with the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) to help Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) and other smaller business intermediaries throughout England understand the recent changes to apprenticeships and how this impacts smaller employers. By working in partnership with you, this service aims to provide practical advice to as many smaller employers as possible until March 2020.

Why is the service needed?

There are over 2,000,000 smaller employers in England and from January 2020, they have a choice in the way they engage with apprenticeships. The Government has a vision to improve the quality of apprenticeships and ensure they work for businesses of all sizes. That's why at the beginning of the year they opened up the apprenticeship service for all businesses, not just large ones. This change will allow smaller employers, who do not pay the apprenticeship levy, to make more informed decisions when it comes to apprenticeships, ensuring they are doing what's best for their business.

How can you help?

We're working in partnership and collaboration with local intermediaries, sharing tools and knowledge so that your network of local businesses can confi dently navigate the apprenticeship service. We want to help you to drive regional growth by encouraging business growth through apprenticeships.

How will we support you?

NSAR has recruited Partnership Leads to work in regional clusters with intermediaries to deliver a schedule of information-sharing activities in each LEP region in England. These will involve a selection of co-delivered events, webinars and workshops and will cover subjects including: 

The Apprenticeship Service – what is it, how to register, how is it used? 

Making Apprenticeships Work for Smaller Employers – the Toolkit launch We are offering webinars on the following dates to update you on the progress of the intermediary service and showcase best practice in your regions:

January 29th 

February 26th 

March 25th

They are also running regional 'Masterclass for Intermediaries' workshops.

These funded workshops are open to intermediary staff and will provide coaching on the changes to Apprenticeships, allowing you to pass on sustainable support to your smaller employer networks beyond the end of this project.

In addition, they have grant funding to help intermediaries raise awareness across England so get in touch today to see how you can get involved. To get involved in the campaign, register for the webinars or sign-up for your nearest event contact us at apprenticeships@nsar.co.uk