An overview of pressing apprenticeship and entry-level talent issues for agencies.
This has been extended beyond the end of September to the end of January 2022. (It is not clear yet if the extension to the claims paperwork will go beyond January.) This applies to any new apprentices of any age or any apprenticeship standard in England.
The payment is in addition to the existing £1,000 an employer will already get for taking on an apprentice who is either:
The payment will be made in two equal installments (after 90 days, then after 365 days.) To apply you will use your apprenticeship account and any good training provider will help you with all aspects of the paperwork around apprenticeships.
The advice is to start now. This is the link for information on the scheme and how to apply. And the helpdesk is [email protected]
You need to apply by 17 December, can take cohorts on until the end of March ’22 and they must be finished their six months with you by the end of September. You can take on 16-24s who are on Universal Credit and at risk of long term unemployment (e.g. rural, disability, criminal record etc.). This must be with a view to new jobs. You offer them a minimum of 25 hours a week over a six-month period. (You can allocate these hours per week how you see fit e.g. spread over four days rather than five.) They receive the national living wage from Government which you pay and are then reimbursed for. You are given £1,500 per person for their training. There is no expectation that will offer them a job or an apprenticeship at the end of the Kickstart placement, but if you want to, you can.
There are several steps you need to go through 1. applying (they need to know you are e.g. financially stable and how you will help these youngsters) 2. being approved 3. Supplying job specs 4. Work coach will decide best fit (although you don’t have to take anyone you don’t think will fit.) Apparently, a big tip to speed things up is not to just wait for young people to come to you but to engage with work coaches and offer e.g. to come and meet a large group and select from there.
WFH is an option but only if you can stay in regular contact via Zoom/Teams etc.
Levy payers can transfer 25% of their unused apprentice levy. They can specify locations, sectors, type of job and Level but as some are tick box and a specific apprenticeship cannot be specified this may not be an immediately obvious match. Those applying (mainly non levy paying companies, but theoretically also levy payers who have run out of levy and wish to hire/train more apprentices) have to say something about themselves, state the apprenticeship, declare a training provider. A dashboard can show the status of both sides. A current example of levy payer offering funds is Amazon. Both pledger and recipient will again need an apprentice service account.
Whilst you can arrange to transfer funds to a company you know, it is not absolutely clear if advertising groups can take advantage of this to transfer funds between agencies in their group. It appears that each company would need an independent pay roll.
Both The Bauer Academy and AllSpring Media have apprentices currently underway for Advertising and Media Executive and Junior Advertising Creative. Please get in touch with [email protected] and/or [email protected] to discuss either a branded cohort or if there will be space(s) on an open programme. Both companies can also help with some recruitment. They both offer other useful apprenticeships such as Junior Content Producer. For information on any apprenticeship or provider please contact Gwyn as below.
The IPA will soon be launching a new entry-level advisory service. If you'd like to discuss and get help with any aspect of entry-level talent please get in touch with Gwyn March, [email protected], anytime.