Here we are mid-2021, life is gently re-emerging into something we recognise, and many people have decided to do something different. After 16 months of life-changing circumstances, hunkering down, trying to keep the ship afloat, people are changing careers, trying to ensure a better work-life balance, and others are thinking: what next?
Now is the perfect opportunity to seize opportunities for learning and development, whether for yourself or for your team. And now there are even more opportunities to do this at the Association of Corporate Treasurers (ACT), including using the UK’s apprenticeship levy. But if the thought of apprenticeships and the apprenticeship levy either fills you with dread or makes you want to switch off, keep reading, as I plan to eliminate some of the confusion around them, and provide you with an opportunity you may otherwise miss.
Two years ago, the apprenticeship levy was introduced to create long-term sustainable funding for apprenticeships and to give employers more control to provide their staff with a range of training opportunities. The levy means there is more money available than ever before for apprenticeship training and enables employers to choose which apprenticeships they offer, how many and when. By 2019-20 the funding available for investment in apprenticeships in England rose to over £2.5bn. Since it was introduced, the levy has directly supported almost 313,000 people to start their apprenticeship journey.
The levy is paid by large employers with a pay bill of over £3m (they pay 0.5% of their total annual pay bill); it is there to fund apprenticeship training for all employers. Smaller employers – those with a total annual pay bill of less than £3m – pay just 5% of the cost of their apprenticeship training and the UK government pays the rest. Therefore, it doesn’t matter what size your organisation is, you and your employees are all able to use the levy for training purposes.
To take it a step further, in order to encourage and support smaller businesses, levy-paying employers can now also transfer up to 25% of their levy funds to other employers. This will help to make sure the system is flexible, meets the needs of employers and will also help smaller businesses to invest in more training opportunities.
Apprenticeships are now more important than ever in helping businesses to recruit the right people and develop the skills they need to recover and grow – both now and in the long term. Due to the economic impact of COVID-19, the government has introduced incentive payments for hiring a new apprentice to help, and encourage organisations to offer new apprenticeships. Employers will receive £3,000 for new apprentices of any age who join their organisation from 1 April 2021 to 30 September 2021.
With all the support and funding available, failing to explore the opportunities to use the levy to support your training needs represents a missed opportunity.
So, what does the ACT offer to help you make use of the apprenticeship scheme?
Currently, our Certificate in Treasury, Diploma in Treasury Management and Certificate in International Cash Management qualifications are mandated qualifications on the Financial Services Professional (FSP) standard. This is a level 6 standard, ie undergraduate degree level, which aims to support people in the financial services industry, and enables individuals to acquire the knowledge necessary to become highly competent industry professionals. The apprenticeship is delivered starting with a base of core knowledge, skills and behaviours required of all individuals entering or progressing to this level in the sector, and then a set of specialist options (which is where the ACT qualifications come in) provide the occupationally specific competence.
This apprenticeship has available funding of up to £18,000, per apprentice, and takes approximately 32 months to complete, although it may be faster if students have prior qualifications. With four enrolment windows available throughout the year, you can manage and flex the apprenticeship start to suit your business needs.
This isn’t just talk. In June 2021, we launched our first FSP apprenticeship cohort with HSBC UK. Some 11 HSBC UK employees started their exciting apprenticeship journey, taking our Certificate in Treasury and Diploma in Treasury Management qualifications. As trailblazers in this space, we talked to HSBC. David Brook, managing director, corporate coverage, commercial banking global liquidity and cash management UK HSBC, and Laura Thain, associate director, people engagement lead GLCM UK, UK Commercial Bank, HSBC UK, told us about their decisions to use the levy, why it was a good time to do this, and why they felt the ACT qualifications were best suited to their teams.
As Thain commented in the interview: “We want to be an inspirational educator and make sure that we're setting our employees up for success. We don't just want them to train for the job they're in now, but actually train for the job that they're going to have in the future. That's really what's important to us.”
Knowing that the ACT qualifications can make such a difference to people’s lives, and that there is funding available to support everyone on their journey, we would like to encourage all our members and anyone interested in finding out more about apprenticeships and the ACT qualifications – whether from a financial institution or a corporate – to get in touch and find out how we can help you. Supporting and developing our members and students is key to the ACT mission, and we want to be there for all stages of your career and development.
Janet Legge is director of the awarding body at the Association of Corporate Treasurers
The ACT apprenticeship page can be found here.