Apprenticeship Information for Employers

Totton College offers a range of apprenticeships that enable employers and employees to develop new skills, knowledge, and behaviours. We pride ourselves in our bespoke apprenticeship training programmes, which are developed to meet the needs of the business. This includes industry-specific training for areas from business administration to early years. We offer a blended approach to learning enabling flexibility for our apprentices and employers.

Incentives available

  • The 16-18 incentive of £1,000 for recruiting an apprentice, aged 16- 18 or aged 16-24 with an EHCP (Educational Health Care Plan)

The government have previously introduced additional incentives for employers who take on apprentices of any age, it is always useful to check with your contact at Totton College for further details.

Key information

  • An apprentice must be paid for a minimum of 30-hours per week (this must include any time spent in college).
  • An apprentice aged 16-18 can only work a maximum of 40-hours per week.
  • The current minimum hourly rate for an apprentice is £4.81* and if the apprentice is aged 19+, they can only be paid the minimum apprenticeship wage for a maximum of 12-months.
  • As an employer, you will be required to have valid Public & Employer insurance in place.
  • You must allow for an apprentice to have 20% off the job training within paid hours (this includes the time spent attending workshops).
  • The apprentice will have regular 1-1 sessions with a trained assessor in addition to the workshops.
  • Should you recruit an apprentice who needs to achieve English and/or maths, these will be delivered by our Functional Skills tutor at the college.
  • The role that the apprentice undertakes should allow them the opportunity to experience the elements of the qualification for them to be observed towards their qualification. The pre-enrolment process takes into consideration the apprentice’s prior experience, their English and maths prior attainment and their suitability for the role.
  • You will be expected as the employer to mentor the apprentice to gain the relevant skills, knowledge, and behaviours for the Apprenticeship Standard by supervising their practise and allowing them to shadow experienced members of staff.

In addition to the above, Totton College can offer a free recruitment service for you to ensure that the applicants meet both the criteria for the role and suitability for the apprenticeship – this includes, advertising the apprenticeship role, conducting initial interviews with potential candidates, and overseeing initial assessments for English and maths. Plus, liaising with you directly to arrange interviews and feedback.

Employer fees

  • If you are an employer with less than 50 employees on your payroll, the ESFA (Education and Skills Fund Agency) will cover 100% of the training cost for any apprentice aged 16-18 or 16-24 if they have an EHCP
  • If you are employing an apprentice aged 19+ or your organisation has more than 49 employees on payroll then you would be required to pay a 5% co-investment towards the course cost. This can be paid over three instalments or in one payment. You will be invoiced via the college’s finance department.
  • If you are an employee who has a wage bill of over £3 million, your organisation would be automatically paid into a levy pot therefore the cost of the course will be covered by the levy.

What’s the next step?

  • If you are interested in talking to a member of the team regarding taking on an apprentice, please complete the contact form below and we will be in contact.
  • As part of the apprenticeship funding, you will need to create an account on the Digital Account Service, we can support you with setting up your account

 

*minimum hourly rate for apprentices correct from April 22.