Issue - meetings

To consider a report of the Director of Culture, Communities and Business Services regarding the implementation of the County Council’s Apprenticeship Levy programme.

The Committee received a report of the Director of Culture, Communities and Business Services regarding the implementation of the County Council’s Apprenticeship Levy programme.

The context of this Government initiative was set out and it was confirmed that the money top-sliced from the County Council was held in a digital account that could be drawn down for apprenticeship training. Training schemes must be approved and accredited in order to use the levy. The number of apprenticeships had declined as a result of suitable training schemes not being in place and for this reason the period in which it could be used had been extended to 24 months. Appendix 1 of the report was highlighted as it demonstrated how the County Council was seeking to convert existing training into apprenticeships and some of the difficulties with this were noted. It was confirmed that up to 10 percent of the levy could be transferred for use by staff in the Council’s supply chain and this concept was still being worked out nationally.

Members discussed the differences between the new standards and the previous framework and heard that there was now a greater level of prescription and also rigour, however not all of the standards had been defined, which was limiting progress. The anticipated split of the use of funding between new and existing staff was questioned and it was heard that this had not formally been defined, but the emphasis was likely to be on new staff as the off-job element would be easier to manage. The Committee acknowledged that with wholesale change a time lag was inevitable and noted that further analysis would be carried out on longer term targets.

The recommendations were considered and it was

RESOLVED:

That EHCC note the progress to date within the County Council to implement the levy and developing the Apprenticeship programme.