Only 17 per cent of employers who pay the apprenticeship levy are in support of the scheme.
Research from the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) revealed that more than half of employers paying the charge want to see it replaced with a training levy. In addition, 46 per cent admitted that they will simply re-badge their current training activity to comply with the regulations.
Lizzie Crowley, skills adviser at the CIPD, said: ‘Our research shows that the straitjacket of the apprenticeship levy is forcing many firms to re-badge a lot of their existing training as apprenticeships, as they seek to claw back the levy they pay.’
However, she argues that this ‘re-badging’ is not adding any additional value and is instead creating additional bureaucracy and cost.
Despite a number of firms confirming that they will use the available funding, the study of more than 1,000 employers found that 19 per cent of levy paying businesses, including 35 per cent of SMEs, don’t plan to use the levy to develop apprenticeships and will simply write it off as a tax.
Crowley believes that although apprenticeships are important, other forms of training are equally valuable. ‘A move to a more flexible training levy would have the effect of continuing to prompt greater employer investment in skills, including apprenticeships, but in a way that is much more responsive to employers’ needs.’
The CIPD’s report, Early impact of the apprenticeship levy, also revealed that 22 per cent of employers still don’t know whether they are paying the apprenticeship levy, and 13 per cent who know they will have to pay have not calculated what the levy will cost them.
‘The government needs to seriously review the levy to ensure it is flexible enough to respond to employers’ needs and to drive the greater investment in high quality training and workplace skills needed to boost UK productivity,’ added Crowley.
