The recent Autumn Budget presents a complex landscape for businesses, offering both challenges and opportunities. While increased public spending promises potential growth, rising employment costs and uncertainties in education funding pose obstacles. However, one particular provision provides a significant advantage: the continuing exemption of under-25 apprentices from National Insurance contributions.
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Limit the impact of rising NI contributions for your business
By recruiting or upskilling young talent aged 25 or under, businesses can not only reduce costs but also cultivate a skilled and loyal workforce. This strategic move positions employers to not only weather economic storms but also thrive in a competitive market. -
Navigating the skills landscape
The Budget's lack of specific details regarding education funding and policy changes, particularly for adult education and skills development, creates uncertainty for the sector. However, this uncertainty also presents opportunities for employers to take the initiative and develop their own tailored training programmes. -
Increased budgets for adult care and early years education providers
As the Government double down on their efforts to fix the adult care and early years sectors, there’s no denying how important skills development, staff attraction, and talent retention is for these sectors. We are positioned and poised to support with all three.
An increased focus on digitalisation and data literacy
Within each of the sectorised plans we’ve seen to date, such as the Skills for Care Digital Skills Framework, there’s a very clear focus on building digital skills and data literacy to equip the workforce with the skills they need to harness the benefit technology brings to business. We’re at the cutting-edge of these policy developments, and already have suites of products ready to roll out to answer their requirements.
Lifetime: your partner in workforce development
To effectively navigate this complex landscape, businesses can partner with experienced providers like Lifetime. We offer a range of tailored training solutions, including:
- Identifying training needs: we collaborate with employers to assess specific skills gaps and develop customised learning solutions.
- Recruiting talented apprentices: our extensive network connects businesses with high-quality apprentices eager to learn and contribute. We have over 10,000 candidates active in our systems, looking for career opportunities and ready for placements with businesses like yours.
- Managing the apprenticeship process: we handle all aspects of the apprenticeship process, ensuring compliance and maximising benefits.
- Providing ongoing support: we offer continuous support to both employers and apprentices, addressing challenges and optimising impact.
To help employers understand and implement workforce learning strategies that will harness the new Budget’s potential, such as recruiting and upskilling your young workforce through apprenticeships to reduce your National Insurance expenditure, we’re offering free-of-charge 15-minute consultations with our industry experts.
Simply complete the form below to request your consultation. What’s more, once you’ve signed up, we’ll continue to provide you with updates and guidance as the Skills England position becomes clearer.