Last Updated on April 18, 2016
The Government has abolished employer National Insurance contributions for young apprentices under 25 years of age. The change, which came into effect on 6th April 2016, applies to both existing employers with apprentices and those taking on a new apprentice.
Skills Minister Nick Boles said, ‘We’re making it even better value for businesses to take on a young apprentice. Businesses will no longer need to pay National Insurance contributions for apprentices under 25.
‘Apprenticeships make sense for young people and for business. If you’re an employer not already reaping the benefits, now is the time to act.’
The Government is reforming apprenticeships to ensure they are high quality and responsive to the needs of employers by:
- Giving employers the power to design and deliver new apprenticeships as part of the new Trailblazer initiative.
- Introducing a new £10m fund to boost the number of degree apprenticeships available, providing more opportunities for young people to get a degree while working at a top company.
- Creating the Institute for Apprenticeships by April 2017 – a new independent body, led by employers that will ensure the quality of apprenticeships in England.
National Apprenticeship Week 2016 took place from 14th to 18th March 2016 and saw hundreds of events take place across the country and more than 30,000 new apprenticeship places pledged by employers.
In October 2015, it was announced that there had been a 20% leap in the numbers of health and social care apprenticeships to 84,300 up from 70,080 the year before. The provisional numbers from the Government’s Statistical First Release for 2014/15 also revealed that the numbers of Care Leadership and Management Higher Apprenticeships had more than doubled to 8,300 compared to 3,450 last year.
Higher Apprenticeships in the social care sector make up 43% of all Higher Apprenticeship starts across all sectors and, since this framework first started three years ago, it has generated 14,720 starts out of 38,120.
The 20% year-on-year increase for health and social care and 140% in care leadership and management were greater than the year-on-year 12% change for all frameworks. It means health and social care is still the largest framework. It is almost twice as large as the second largest framework in terms of starts, and the gap to the second largest framework widened by almost 10,000 starts since last year.
There will be more information on the reform of apprenticeships in the May issue of CMM May, due out later this week.