Pritchett & Co Limited says apprentices make a big difference at SMEs

With businesses up and down the country celebrating Apprenticeship Week accountants Pritchett & Co Limited say small businesses continue to benefit from their efforts.

Government figures show that apprentices contribute more than £34 billion every year to the UK economy.

In order to support this growth in apprenticeships the government will introduce the apprenticeship levy from April 2017, which will seek to raise £2.5 billion for training in England by effectively taxing businesses with a payroll of more than £3 million.

This funding from this levy will then be made available to all employers with apprentices, regardless of their size, to assist with their training.

It is hoped that this money will help to upskill the UK’s workforce and bolster the growth of businesses across the UK.

James Hastings, director at North Wales based Pritchett & Co Limited, said: “Only two per cent of businesses will have to pay the new apprenticeship levy, while the vast majority of small to medium-sized enterprises will benefit from the funding it provides.”

“Apprentices have an extremely important part to play in this country’s economic growth and many SMEs are successfully using the scheme to take on new apprentices when in normal circumstances they might struggle to finance the extra post.”

“With skilled workers increasingly in short supply, businesses across the country could benefit from an apprentice.” However in some areas where employment is already high the problem is attracting young people onto apprenticeship programmes where they are often seeing the pay as low without full consideration of the benefits and costs of the underlying training.

For more information please contact us at info@pritchettandco.co.uk or call us on 01492 534250.

The author is a director at Pritchett & Co Limited, Chartered Accountants and Chartered Tax Advisers, members of UK200Group with offices throughout the UK and Associates overseas.