Apprenticeship Funding Rules: What does an Apprenticeship cost to employers?
What affects apprenticeship funding?Apprenticeship funding rules can be complicated as…
Expand your Team,
Recruit an Apprentice
Reliable Training with Proven Results
An apprenticeship will support your business’ growth by acquiring or upskilling new talent that will be trained according to your needs, help you save money and achieve new milestones.
With 20 years of experience, we have placed and trained over 1000 apprentices with employers of every size, in every sector across the UK, that become invaluable members of the team.
A Creative Alliance apprentice can be part of your next success story.
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Benefits of Hiring an apprentice
Loyalty & Retention
Apprentices value your leadership and support on their development.
This leads to increase in loyalty, reducing any future recruitment and onboarding costs for your business when replacing employees.
Skilled Workforce
The apprenticeship is based on the skills and competencies you require.
Helping you develop a workforce that is tailored to the company’s needs, contributing to increased productivity and efficiency.
New Perspectives
Apprenticeships bring in new talent with fresh ideas and viewpoints.
Gain a competitive edge and evolve your business with the innovation an apprentice can bring into your companies practices and culture.
Cost-Effective Growth
Hiring apprentices is an investment in your team
Using Government incentives and funding, recruiting an apprentice can save you money, while securing and cultivating future talent!
How we Create Success
Our proven way of work provides your apprentice with the best learning and industry knowledge to become an outstanding member of the team.
Working with Creative Alliance you get:
Free Recruitment
Our Recruitment team will support you at every stage of your apprentice on-boarding, covering job advertising, prospect screening and interview arrangements. All for FREE!
Expert Trainers
Your apprentice will be trained by industry experts who deliver seminars based around key skills for their role. A dedicated Development Coach will also ensure their growth in your company.
Upskill Talent
Our apprenticeship training has enabled other businesses to upskill their current workforce into new roles, developing their skills and capacity to undertake new tasks.
Get in touch to find out more
The Specialist Provider
We specialise in the creative, digital and marketing sector and are committed to providing the best training that produces genuine results to the companies that trust us with the development of their creative talent.
With 20 years of experience as a non-for-profit training provider, we have connected over 1000 apprentices with places of employment.
Added Value
Creative Alliance provides apprentices with updated skills and supportive knowledge beyond the required curriculum, to nurture holistic professionals that excel in their roles:
- Growth Sessions: A series of masterclasses delivered by industry leaders on mental health, productivity, industry knowledge and more.
- Additional Sessions: All apprentices have access to additional resources and seminars from other standards to expand their learning experience.
- Committed Staff: All of our staff is trained to provide the best service possible and attend both you and your apprentice’s enquiries, safeguarding support and learning.
Our Apprenticeships
We have 3 new apprenticeships coming soon! Get in touch to find out more.
Hear from our community
Hear from our community
We partnered with Creative Alliance in 2022 and have been super impressed so far! From initial brief through to our recruitment event and eventually onboarding our learners – the process and support has been brilliant. Creative Alliance have genuine care for their learners and offer wonderful support to their employer partners!
Head of Talent Acquisition
Working with Creative Alliance has been a game changer for how we take on apprentices at Global. The team have been a real partner for us to explore the right fit programmes, to make sure our learners are reaching their full potential. From onboarding, to our apprentices passing their EPA – and everything in between has felt seamless!
Talent Development Manager
We’ve worked with Creative Alliance since BBJ&K was founded 7 years ago, as we believe in growing talent and shaping futures within our organisation. Creative Alliance offer great apprentices and manage them throughout the entire process to ensure they reach their potential. We’ve just taken on 3 new apprentices and have, in some instances, developed previous apprentices through to director level; so we really believe in the apprenticeship program.
Managing Director
…they gave a first class recruitment service. Everything was presented to us in a timely manner and we were given a great account of each individual and why they thought they would fit with us. The whole recruitment process was quick & easy.
The games industry is an incredibly hard industry to get into. Part of the reason for us taking on apprentices was to give young people the break they needed.
We are now on our 4th apprentice and it’s having a great impact. Not only is it bringing youth into the company, it’s brought a fresh perspective.
A lot of people coming into the marketplace we’re not as skilled as I would like them to have been. I realised that with an apprenticeship would be ideal as they could get training on the job. This would allow them to be taught the ARK way of learning
Brilliant at every step of the way. We’ve been kept up to date with applications, screenings and been provided with a list of ready to interview candidates that would have taken us an age to compile. We have also been impressed how CA have contacted us after each interview to see how the meetings went. Excellent service
Apprenticeships made simple – Creative Alliance managed everything from finding, placing and training our Marketing Apprentice, they are absolutely amazing and an invaluable part of our team. Thank you so much!
FAQ
As of April 2023, for 16-18 year olds, the current National Minimum Wage rate for an apprentice is £5.28 per hour.
For apprentices aged 19 and over, its £5.28 per hour for the first year and then after completion of the first year they will then be entitled to National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage rate for their age.
As this is a minimum, we recommend setting the wage higher as in our experience it will encourage more talented candidates and will show applicants that you value them higher, which can increase productivity and quality their work.
Our recruitment team does all the heavy lifting. They will advertise the role, contact candidates, make short lists and offer their expert advice.
Firstly, we work with you to establish what you are looking for including skills, attitude, knowledge and personality, so we can find the right talent for your business.
Then when you are ready we will advertise the role on our website, governement’s website, other job sites including Indeed, on social media and at events. If you want, you are also able to use your network and channels to advertise the position. If not, you can leave this to us. We are constantly recruiting for roles and, speaking with fresh and exciting talent, we may already have the perfect candidate for you.
When we have a number of suitable candidates, we will send over a list with notes so you can decide who you want to interview. We can also work with you to help make that decision and also offer advice on the interviewing process.
Once you have chosen the right candidate, we will guide you though the forms and contracts to get the apprenticeship started.
Already found someone?
If you have already got an individual in mind, that’s great, we can help you bring that individual onto the apprenticeship. We will just need to speak with them to ensure they are eligible for funding.
Unlike other courses, an apprenticeship can be started at anytime. Therefore you aren’t limited to term times.
Even though you can recruit an apprentice anytime, there are more optimal times to recruit. For example, as most courses end in the summer, the time when there are the most candidates are the months leading up to and during the summer holidays. We recommend getting in contact as early as you can so you aren’t competing for a candidate!
Yes, Yes and Yes.
Anyone is able to start an apprenticeship and is a great option to upskill a team member in their role or skill them into a new role.
As the apprenticeship scheme is funded by the government, there are a few eligibility criteria’s so we will need to speak with the individual first. This eligibility criteria includes:
- Living in England for over 3 years
- Right to work in the UK
- Grade 4/C in Maths and English
- No Crossover with past education or experience
Crossover is important as the government will only fund new learning therefore the individual can’t have previously studied the same subject at an equivalent or higher level. Also, even if they haven’t studied the subject but have a high level of experience and understanding within that role it could be classed as crossover.
We deal with each situation on a case by case, so for more information please get in touch.
Funding
Levy Payer
This is only payable if you have a total wage bill of over £3 million per year. This would mean that:
- Apprenticeship Levy will be set at 0.5% of your total payroll.
- You will NOT pay the first £15,000 of the levy.
- It will be collected on monthly basis via HRMC payroll data.
For more information we have created a small two-page Levy Guide. Get in touch with our team for further support.
Non-levy Payer
If your total wage bill is bellow the £3 million mark, then you would be a non-levy employer, in which case:
- 100% of the funding for the training is funded by the government for learners who are 16-18 at the start of the apprenticeship.
- If the apprentice is 19 at the start of the apprenticeship 95% of the funded is paid by the UK government. For example: Digital Marketer has a training value of £11,000 so that’s £10,450 to £11,000 of free training for your business.
Recruitment
We know how time-consuming and costly it can be to recruit the right staff to your business. Our Recruitment and Marketing team will support you by:
- Advertising your vacancy across multiple marketing channels.
- Screening of applicants applicants according to your business needs and culture.
- Pre-interview potential candidates to ensure you only interview the most appropriate people for your specific role.
All free of charge saving you time and money.
Speak with our recruitment team to establish how we can best recruit for you.
Shekinah Yuhanna
Graduated Apprentice & Creative Alliance Board Member
Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
We’re a social enterprise and our purpose is to enable people from diverse, backgrounds & experiences to get into creative, digital & marketing roles.
How we do it
Our policy recognises the principle of equality of treatment & opportunity and the rights of everyone to those. You can read our policy here.
Our 2021-24 Business Plan has an Equality, Diversity & Inclusion Action Plan. There is still significant under-representation of people from some backgrounds, experiences or abilities in creative, digital & marketing roles.
We’re working with partners to increase the number of people in training & apprenticeships who:
- Are from working class backgrounds identified through postcode deprivation index data
- Identify as Black-African, Black-British or Black-Caribbean or Mixed/Multiple Ethnic Groups Background
- Have Special Educational Needs including those on the autism spectrum