“The government’s Kickstart Scheme, which, for six months, will pay the wages, employers NI (National Insurance) and minimum auto enrolment costs of 16-24 year olds who were previously on Universal Credit should give those operators with possible job opportunities welcome support.
“Where operators are able to offer work experience to Traineeship learners they will receive £1,000, and should they take on an apprentice then there is a further payment from the government (paid in part when the apprentice is taken on, the rest when they complete their apprenticeship) of £2,000 for under 25s and £1,500 for over 25s.
“We had hoped that the Kickstart Scheme would be capable of running in tandem with an apprenticeship, thus helping operators to take on new talent and nurture them for a great career in our fabulous industry. Unfortunately, current advice is that the schemes cannot be run at the same time, however we are working making a strong case to the government for this to be changed.
“It is a little disappointing that the Chancellor did not take this opportunity to open up the apprentice levy to support non-apprenticeship skills and apprentice wages, to remove the employer contribution for small employers, or to extend access to training support for people who lose their jobs and remain unemployed three months later.
“We hope these suggestions will be enacted in future announcements.
“We have requested more information on the application of the new schemes to see how we can help operators to navigate them and will be producing full guidance very soon.”