A guide for registering to the Apprenticeship Service

As an employer are you facing confusion with the Apprenticeship Levy? How do you Sign into the levy portal to access the money you’ve paid into the Apprenticeship Levy to pay for apprenticeship training?    

If you’re an organisation that has an annual pay bill of more than £3 million, then you will be paying the Apprenticeship Levy through HMRC.

Not sure how much you pay?

Use this tool to find out if your organisation pays the Apprenticeship Levy and how much funding you will receive.

Company doesn’t pay into the Levy can I still have funding for apprentices?

Yes. If you know you do not have a Levy pot, then you can also visit the GOV website and find out how to fund apprentices in a different way at www.gov.uk/take-on-an-apprentice/get-funding      

Setting up the company account on the Apprenticeship Service    

Employers must be registered on the Apprenticeship Service to access Apprenticeship funds before they can spend this on Apprenticeship training      

Follow this quick guide to begin the simple process:    

1) Talk to the following people to get the correct information  

The person who has access to your government Gateway account  This is needed to set up your apprenticeship service account.  

A Training Provider (such as us at IPS International) As you will need someone to work out your apprenticeship strategy.  

Your finance/payroll department  So as they can be aware and develop a strategic plan how you will spend your levy funds and work out how much tax you need to declare to HMRC each month.    
 

2) Register on the Apprenticeships Service  

To do this visit the GOV website and set up your account: manage-apprenticeships.service.gov.uk  
 

3) Now you are set up, you have the following things to do:  

- Sign the employment agreement with the ESFA so you can spend funds

  - Add PAYE Schemes that you will be using for apprenticeship funding  

- Add additional organisations to your account  

- Add apprentices and update information on existing apprentices or alternatively, get your chosen training provider to do this for you.

How do I know how much funding my company will receive?

The amount of funding you will receive each month will be calculated by

• The levy you declare to HMRC through the PAYE Process. (Which is the income tax and national insurance that is collected from employment)
•  Multiplied by the proportion of the employer pay bill given to the workforce in England.
• Plus 10% Government top-up on this amount.

Once you have declared your levy, you should see the balance in your account after the 23rd of each month.

How do I work with the training provider?

Now you are set up; the process should be easy and you can start applying for apprentices! You need to work together with your training provider to make sure the data you are adding to your account matches the data they are submitting to the ESFA.  The best idea would be to set a reasonable deadline for adding/checking apprentices with your training provider to make sure the data is correct in advance of submission.

Do I need more advice?

If you do, you can contact the National Apprenticeship Service for advice either by telephone or email.

Tel: 0800 015 0600

Email: [email protected]

For more information on setting up and running your account visit:

www.gov.uk/guidance/manage-apprenticeship-funds

Alternatively, you can contact IPS for more advice too. Visit our Contact us page.