Expand your business with the Kickstart and Apprenticeship Schemes – Apply now!

Employers looking to grow their team should take full advantage of the ongoing Kickstart Scheme to fund the recruitment of new staff members.

An important change to the Government’s Kickstart Scheme earlier this year means that businesses no longer need a minimum of 30 job placements to apply directly for a grant and can submit a claim for funding even if they are creating just a single new position for an eligible candidate.

This opens the door to businesses of all sizes to apply for this vital funding, which is designed to support the creation of new job placements for 16 to 24-year-olds on Universal Credit, who are at risk of long-term unemployment.

Funding from the scheme covers:

• 100 per cent of a worker’s National Minimum or Living Wage (depending on the age of the applicant) for 25 hours per week for a total of six months
• The associated employer National Insurance contributions
• An employer’s minimum automatic enrolment contributions

The job placement you create must not replace existing or planned vacancies or cause existing employees, apprentices or contractors to lose work or reduce their working hours.

To complete an application, you will need:

• Your Companies House reference number or Charity Commission number (if you have one)
• Your organisation’s address and contact details
• Details of the job placements and their location

Employers can spread the start date of the job placements up until the end of December 2021. So, it is important that businesses make full use of this scheme before it closes later this year.

Other apprenticeship incentives

Businesses can also take on new apprentices via a new funding scheme, which promises to provide a payment for each new apprentice hired as an employee until 30 September.

Employers of all sizes in England can now apply for up to £3,000 of funding to hire and train new apprentices.

It is up to employers how they invest the cash, but the guidance recommends that it covers uniforms, professional training or travel costs for the apprentice.

The latest funding is part of a national drive to boost skills and reduce youth unemployment across the country post-pandemic.

To be eligible, the traineeships must last between six weeks and 12 months and offer young people training and work placements that boost employability.

The new funding is offered alongside the existing £1,000 employers already receive for hiring an apprentice:

• aged 16 to 18 years old
• under 25 with an education, health and care plan or who has been in the care of their local authority

Further details of the Government’s current apprenticeship schemes and funding can be found here.

Here to help

If you require advice or support with the Kickstart or Apprenticeship Schemes, please contact our dedicated grant funding team.