12 December 2016

Apprenticeship Levy Consultation - Northern Ireland

The Department for the Economy in Northern Ireland have released a consultation paper to provide some information and seek employer views on how best the Department can support them to avail of skills and development training, particularly apprenticeships relevant to the needs of their organisation.

The full consultation paper is available to download below.

The Department would like views on:

• What do you think are the main issues for Northern Ireland employers from the introduction of the Levy?
• As a result of the Levy, what factors should the Department take into account to ensure appropriate training support is available in Northern Ireland?
• Will the Levy have an impact on your recruitment of apprenticeships? In what way?
• As a result of the Levy would you be more likely to use the programmes described in Annex B (see the full consultation document below)? In what way?
• Do you have any further comments on the Northern Ireland response to the UK wide Levy?

The deadline for response to this consultation is 23 December 2016.

Remember - come April 2017 employers in Northern Ireland with a pay bill in excess of £3 million will have the Levy (set at a rate of 0.5% of an employer's pay bill) collected from them by HM Revenue and Customs through the PAYE system on a monthly basis. Levy payers in Northern Ireland will not receive access to a digital account with their training fund balance - training funding will continue to be controlled by Northern Ireland Executive.

Please consider responding to this consultation - directly using the link below; or alternatively please send your comments and thought to the BPIF so that we can represent them in our response.

The BPIF has drafted a response to the NI consultation; if you would like to see it please contact Kyle Jardine.