A key initiative within OxLEP Skills’ Social Contract Programme, the ‘Grow Your Own’ Apprenticeship Levy Pledge Initiative sees Oxfordshire’s levy-paying businesses transfer their unused apprenticeship levy funds to other organisations within the county to support their own skills needs – rather than returning back to the treasury.
Employers with an annual pay bill of over £3m, pay 0.5% of this as an apprenticeship levy and are able to pledge up to 50% of their levy annually. Through the ‘Grow Your Own’ Apprenticeship Levy Pledge Initiative, businesses are supported in pledging their unused levy funds and transferring them to eligible Oxfordshire based small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs), charities and social enterprises to help fund their apprenticeship training and assessment.
Since the programme began back in May 2022, over £2.3m has been successfully allocated through the fund, with £1.3m remaining to eligible businesses to fulfill their own apprenticeship aspirations. Any funds that remain unused after the programme end will be lost to Oxfordshire and over a period of time returned to the Treasury.
In this video, Leah Bryan, Oxfordshire Apprenticeship Advisor for OxLEP Skills caught up with Gregory Surveyors Ltd’s Louise Gregory, to hear their experience of the initiative and working alongside OxLEP Skills – and how simple the process can be for recipients of the funding.
We also heard from Operations Manager at Live Wire Productions, Gavin Pledge, as he shared his experience of OxLEP Skills’ Apprenticeship Levy Pledge Initiative.
Benefitting from a levy pledge from Oxford University, Live Wire Productions have utilised apprenticeship levy funds which would otherwise have gone unutilised – and been returned back to the Treasury.
The Social Contract programme is a £1.7 million programme of activity funded by the government’s Contain Outbreak Management Fund, via Oxfordshire County Council and led by OxLEP Skills – to address the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic relating to unemployment, barriers to employment, education and training.
To find out if your business could be eligible to take up the levy funding and take on your own apprentice, pledge your own levy, or find out more about the other initiatives, get in touch today: skills@oxfordshirelep.com.