The ESFA has announced that new apprenticeship starts for non-levy paying employers using the apprenticeship service from January to March 2020 will be funded from an additional budget to support the transition, which will allow for up to 15,000 starts during that period. They have said ‘From April 2020 we expect to move into the second phase of transition’ ‘we will be extending existing non-levy contracts for a further period for both new and continuing apprentices. The current procured contracts, and the extension from April 2020, will remain as one route for funding training to these employers, with the extended contracts and access via the apprenticeship service dual running to support the transition period’. Further information is in the ESFA Update. They will be running some webinars to explain the transition in more details soon.
