As announced last week, smaller employers, who do not pay the apprenticeship levy, now have full access to the apprenticeship service. Registration to use the service is here. Until March a transition period will start with an initial ‘test phase’. The ESFA will seek feedback from employers who register and recruit through the service and from providers working with those employers and will monitor how the system is working, keeping under review how the reservation policy is working. More information on the transition phase, the announcement of additional funding for up to 5,000 new starts through the service, per month, between January and March 2020 and the ability for smaller employers to reserve funds for training, can be read on the ESFA FE Update here. The ESFA are running further webinars throughout January to provide more detail on the planned arrangements, details of these are here.
