Council pledges support for local apprenticeships

Newcastle City Council is today announcing a new scheme which supports small, local businesses to take on more apprentices by covering the total costs of an apprentice’s training from their Apprenticeship Levy fund.

The Apprenticeship Levy is a fund paid into by large organisations which is used to cover the costs of training an apprentice.

Covid-19 restrictions during the pandemic have meant opportunities to bring in new apprentices have been severely limited, and the council has therefore pledged the left over funds to be passed on to other organisations so that more apprenticeships can be created in Newcastle for local people.

Cllr Paula Holland, Newcastle City Council cabinet member for Education and Skills, said: “We’re launching a new way for small or medium sizes local businesses to apply directly to us for support funding new apprenticeships. This means we would fund the total training costs for apprentices, and we hope this might just make the difference to organisations considering taking on an apprentice in their business.

“This fund also means levy which the Council has been unable to use itself can stay local and be put to use supporting more people into apprenticeships.

“We hope this can boost the number of apprenticeship opportunities for people across Newcastle, and help firms strengthen their workforce.

“In the local authority we have benefited from the skills and expertise developed by our own apprentices, and this has helped people working for Newcastle City Council to develop to their full potential and be more successful in their roles supporting the city. We hope our new apprenticeship levy scheme will help to ensure these fantastic benefits are also being made in smaller business.”

Chief Executive, Pam Smith, said: “As a council we are delighted to be able to support this scheme which aims to provide more opportunities for apprenticeships in our city.

“Apprenticeships have an important part to play in helping businesses of all sizes to develop a motivated, skilled and qualified workforce, and to gain the skills they need for the future of their business in the post-Covid economy.

“Pledging our unused levy is an excellent way of supporting our local economy and local people to benefit from new job opportunities and we’d also like to encourage other large organisations to look into pledging their own unused funds to help other local businesses.”

Organisations wishing to apply for this funding can find further information and make an application at www.newcastle.gov.uk/apprenticeshiplevy.