Apprenticeship levy changes welcomed by Worcester's MP

Robin Walker says revisions to the apprenticeship levy will help more city firms create jobs, insisting it will drive up the "quality and quantity" of work on offer.

After coming under serious pressure ministers have changed some aspects of the scheme, including paying 20 per cent of the costs faced by training providers under the simpler funding model.

STEM funding has also been increased while the Government will pay £1,000 to employers for taking on young people either in care or subject to an education and health care plan.

For firms which do not pay the levy the Government will fund 90 per cent of their training costs for people taken on.

Before Mr Walker became a minister in the Department for Exiting the European Union one of his key parliamentary themes was apprenticeships.

He said: "I know that local businesses in Worcester value apprenticeships enormously.

"We have a number of great business success stories where the boss started as an apprentice.

"Over the last few years many of the businesses I've met in Worcester and around the country have welcomed the Government's ambition to create millions more apprenticeship opportunities, but some have raised concerns about how the levy will work.

"I heard and echoed some of those concerns and I am delighted the announcement shows the Government taking action on them."

While he was a backbencher Mr Walker sat on the Business, Innovation and Skills Select Committee - and he was a parliamentary private secretary to former Education Secretary Nicky Morgan.

Set to come into force in April 2017, the levy will require employers to invest in apprenticeships, with the size of the investment dependent on the size of the business.

Employers with an annual pay bill of more than £3 million will be required to spend 0.5 per cent of the total on the levy.

In recent months MPs, training providers and private sector employers had cited concerns about the cost and how it would be applied.