DiVA is pleased to announce that its Founder and Director Arit Eminue has won Business Person of the Year 2016 at the Newham Chamber of Commerce Business Awards.
Sponsored by London City Airport, The Business Person of the Year category honours business leaders who have demonstrated leadership and motivational ability along with innovation and creativity in running and developing their business.
“It was a surprise and honour to win the award,” said Arit. “I may be at the top of the food chain at DiVA, however, beside me stand an incredible team who work hard to make our company vision a reality. I couldn’t do what I do without them.”
The winners were announced at a ceremony attended by MPs Lyn Brown and Stephen Timms, the Mayor of Newham, Sir Robin Wales, and councillors. Sponsors included McDonalds, the London Borough of Newham and London City Aiport.
Liam McKay, Head of Public Affairs, London City Airport said: “DiVA is a business that’s dynamic and a business that’s led by someone that’s committed to supporting businesses to grow through apprenticeships and helping the boroughs young be all they can be.”
John James, Executive Secretary of the Newham Chamber of Commerce said, “with 7,500 new businesses being established in Newham during the last five years, adding to an already increasingly thriving commercial base, there are pearls of excellence worthy of the community’s attention.”
Arit founded DiVA out of a passion to work in partnership with employers to ensure people from diverse backgrounds were given opportunities that they might otherwise not have had access to.
Through Government backed Apprenticeships and Traineeships, DiVA has supported over 500 people into creative jobs with employers including Universal, UK Music, All3 Media, Warner Music, Southbank Centre, the CBI, and many more. DiVA was the first independent training provider in London to be awarded the Creative Skillset Tick in recognition of the outstanding training they provide. Over 90% of DiVA Apprentices’ secure employment with their host employer post apprenticeship.
Arit can be contacted directly on 0203 189 784.
The Government has now published the highly anticipated proposals underpinning the new apprenticeship reforms, including the cost of apprenticeship training, along with the additional support for businesses that are not in scope to pay for the Apprenticeship Levy.
The new apprenticeship funding system will be made up of 15 funding bands ranging from £1500 to £27,000 depending on the nature of the apprenticeship. For example, apprenticeships that sit within administration and customer service areas attract a lower training fee with STEM (Science Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) subjects and degree level apprenticeships commanding a higher training cost. It is up to the employer to negotiate the cost of training directly with the training provider.
Under the new proposals, the 98% of employers with wage bills of less than £3m will have 90% of the costs of apprenticeship training paid for by the government.
Also, the Government has introduced financial incentives of £2,000 per apprentice to support employers and training providers that take on 16 to 18-year-old apprentices or young care leavers. Furthermore, businesses with fewer than 50 employees who take on these apprentices will not have to contribute towards the cost of training their apprentice (but will have to pay the salary), rather this will be 100% funded by Government.
The proposal also introduces the following:
- Employers will be able to use levy funds to retrain new and existing staff, even if they have prior qualifications e.g. Undergraduate or Postgraduate degrees
- Levy paying employers that want to spend more on apprenticeship training than what is in their digital account will be able to access the 90% Government contribution
- Guidelines for applying to become a Registered Training Provider, allowing employers the opportunity to deliver the training themselves
DiVA Director, Arit Eminue said: “There is still a way to go in terms of ironing out how the system will work in practice, however, the funding ratio for non-levy paying employers is not prohibitive, particularly when there is much more flexibility on the eligibility criteria of the apprentice, allowing companies the ability to find and train the right talent for their business irrespective of age or educational achievement.”
For details on how you can get your business ready for the apprenticeship levy, contact Arit Eminue on 0203 189 1784 for a free consultation.
Useful Links
Click here for updated guidance for employers
Click here to estimate your levy costs
“By 2020, we want to see 3 million apprentices. To ensure large businesses share the cost of training the workforce, I announced at the Budget that we will introduce a new apprenticeship levy. Today I am setting the rate at 0.5% of an employer’s pay bill. Every employer will receive a £15,000 allowance to offset against the levy”
George Osborne Autumn Statement 2015.
The dramatic announcement in the Autumn Statement 2015 confirmed that government requires business to share the cost of training the UK’s workforce, which will be achieved through the new ‘Apprenticeship Levy’, a compulsory 0.5% of your annual payroll.
Currently the levy can only be used for the creation of apprenticeships, which in themselves are also changing – employers will soon be responsible for the creation, delivery and management of their apprenticeship programmes. Clearly this will cause many implications for businesses both financially and in terms of resource, particularly for those businesses new to the apprenticeship scheme.
Over the coming months DiVA will be hosting a number of bespoke events for business bringing you the latest updates and inviting experts from across the sector to provide further information on how best business can position itself for the changes. In the interim, we have prepared some quick answers to some of the questions we have most frequently been asked by business since the levy announcement.
Download the Government’s Apprenticeship Vision here
How will the levy impact my business?
The most obvious impact of the levy will be felt when employers start paying 0.5% of their gross payroll into the levy scheme as part of their monthly PAYE payments. This will be offset by a £15,000 tax allowance which means that if you have less than a £3,000,000 payroll you will not pay anything. There may however be a benefit to those businesses that are under the allowance threshold as they will have access to funds raised from the levy to use as additional funding for apprenticeship training.
So what might my business pay?
Some examples below.
Business with 500 employees, with an average gross salary of £20,000
Payroll: 500 x £20,000 = £10,000,000
Levy sum: 0.5% x £10,000,000 = £50,000
Allowance: £50,000 – £15,000 = £35,000 annual levy payment
Business with 250 employees, each with a gross salary of £20,000:
Payroll: 250 x £20,000 = £5,000,000
Levy sum: 0.5% x £5,000,000 = £25,000
Allowance: £25,000 – £15,000 = £10,000 annual levy payment
Business with 100 employees each with a gross salary of £20,000:
Payroll: 100 x £20,000 – £2,000,000
Levy sum: 0.5% x £2,000,000 = £10,000
Allowance: £10,000 – £15,000 = £0 annual levy payment
What happens if I don’t use the levy?
The only way to recoup the levy is by hiring apprentices. Any unused levy payments will be lost to the business. There is the potential that the under used levy will be given to those employers who have exceeded their apprenticeship levy spend to support additional apprentices. This would also include those businesses who will not be making levy payments as they fall below the threshold as set out above.
How do I get started?
Consider turning all support roles into apprenticeships.
Apprenticeships are excellent for entry level admin/support roles e.g. Marketing Assistants, Admin Assistants, PA roles etc. DiVA are able to give you a quick, free impartial assessment of any vacancy you have or are likely to have in the near future to see whether or not it will be suitable for an apprenticeship. If the role is in an area that we don’t cover we can help you find a suitable training company who can.
Convert current roles into an apprenticeship.
Moving existing staff onto an apprenticeship could be a win-win for both employer and employee. The employee has already learned the idiosyncrasies of the business and an apprenticeship could ensure the development of further skills in-line with business need, potentially forming an accession strategy for your business.
Review your Graduate Scheme.
If your company operates a graduate scheme there may be scope to use some of those graduate places for apprenticeships particularly at a higher apprenticeship level.
Get some help.
It can be a hard slog setting up an apprenticeship scheme especially if you’re starting from scratch. There are many potential pitfalls, course options and way too much jargon! Don’t do it alone. Apprenticeships are our business. We can help!
We can help you carry out an assessment of your current and future recruitment strategy, making an assessment of your current vacancies; likely future vacancies based on your workforce plans; the training requirements you have for existing employees; your future recruitment plans; and how all of these may be able to be met through a robust, government compliant apprenticeship programme that will enable you to recoup funds taxed through the apprenticeship levy.
Whether you just want a quick chat about how these changes may affect your business or if you would like us to work with you on a more in-depth strategy just contact Arit or Paul by completing the contact form here. This is a no obligation free consultancy service that we offer to all of our current and future clients.
When should we get started?
Now! April 2017 is not that far away.
Many businesses will be ready to sign off on their staffing budgets for 2016-17 if they haven’t already. Having a successful apprenticeship scheme developed and embedded into your business’s strategic plan in 2016-17 will allow you to be strongly positioned for when the Apprenticeship Levy comes into force.
For more information on how to get started go to our employer page. I’m an Employer get me started!
We will be keeping this news page up to date with new developments and how they may impact all of our businesses as and when they are released. If you would like to be kept informed of updates or future Apprenticeship Levy events just complete the contact form here and we will add you to our Levy-Info mailing list.
