The TUC on the apprenticeship levy


The TUC has long argued for a statutory levy on employers for training and welcomed the apprenticeship levy as a way of increasing employer investment in apprenticeships and driving up quality.


The government consulted on the levy over the summer of 2015 and the TUC’s submission emphasised the need for the levy to underpin high quality apprenticeships and for employers and unions to agree apprenticeship standards, as is the case in much of the rest of Europe.


The TUC also welcomed a positive response to the recommendations in its submission (to the levy consultation) that there should be a signed agreement by all the key stakeholders clearly committing employers and providers to deliver high quality apprenticeships, together with what steps they will take to ensure this happens. 


This has now been included in the government’s apprenticeship policy for England, English apprenticeships: our 2020 vision, which sets out a requirement for the employer, provider and apprentice to sign a "Statement of Commitment". This sets out the key expectations, roles and responsibilities of each party involved in the apprenticeship. These are that: 


• for apprentices, it will set out expectations of attendance and achievement, a commitment to learning and key behavioural or operational practices to be observed;


• employers will set out wage or key performance commitments, the time and support to be provided to enable the apprentice to learn effectively and any mechanisms for ensuring effective relationships with the training providers involved; and


• training providers will set out how they intend to work with the apprentice and the employer to ensure the apprentice receives high quality learning that meets their needs.


The TUC believes that the statement of commitment should ensure that it is clear what expectations are of each party and that union reps will be better able to intervene to support the rights of individual apprentices and to promote high quality apprenticeships in the workplace. It should also go some way to tackling long-standing issues over apprenticeship pay as the statement of commitment will also set out the wage that the employer must pay an apprentice. Liz Rees, director of the TUC’s learning and skills organisation unionlearn, said: “Given that one in seven apprentices do not receive the apprentice national minimum wage, we hope that this will ensure that more apprentices are paid at least their legal minimum entitlement.”


Rees added: “The statement of commitment is an additional signed commitment by employers and providers to ensure that the apprenticeships they deliver are high quality. Importantly, the statement will set out exactly how the provider aims to deliver high quality training and it will clearly spell out any dispute resolution mechanisms so that apprentices or their union reps who have concerns about their apprenticeships can raise concerns and make changes”. 



The TUC also welcomed the government commitment to make it a criminal offence for providers to deliver poor quality training under the “Apprenticeship” brand (although it disagreed that employers who fully fund their own apprenticeships should be outside the scope of this new offence). The measure will be introduced as part of the Enterprise Bill.


Unionlearn received assurances within hours of the apprenticeship levy announcement in 2015 that the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) is keen to involve unions in the design and oversight of the new levy scheme and the TUC has it made clear that this is a priority.