Each apprenticeship is allocated to one of 30 funding bands. Information on the funding of apprenticeships, including the funding bands, is available below: www.gov.uk/government/publications/apprenticeship-funding
The Institute makes a funding band recommendation to the Secretary of State for Education, who takes the final decision.
During the apprenticeship standard development process, we will make an initial funding band allocation when your occupation proposal is agreed. We will make a final funding band recommendation when your end-point assessment plan (EPA) is agreed.
You can submit evidence to us to inform the final funding band recommendation. You do this by completing an ‘apprenticeship training plan’ form, and submitting this, along with quotes from training providers and an end point assessment organisation (EPAO) with your EPA plan.
This page explains how we make the initial funding band allocation and final funding band recommendation, and when and how you can submit the ‘Apprenticeship Training Plan’ form and supporting quotes. It also explains what happens to the funding band when revisions are made to an apprenticeship that is already approved for delivery.
Each apprenticeship is allocated to one of 30 funding bands, which range from £1,500 to £27,000.
The upper limit of each funding band caps the maximum amount of digital funds an employer who pays the levy can use towards an individual apprenticeship. The upper limit of the funding band also sets the maximum price that government will ‘co- invest’ towards an individual apprenticeship, where an employer does not pay the levy or has insufficient digital funds and is eligible for extra government support.
Information about the apprenticeship levy and spending apprenticeship funds can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/apprenticeship-levy-how-it-will-work/apprenticeship-levy-how-it-will-work
Funding, up to the maximum of the funding band for that apprenticeship, can be used to pay for apprenticeship training and assessment for apprentices. If the costs of training and assessment go over the funding band maximum, employers will need to pay the difference with other funds.
Details about what can and can’t be funded are set out in the Education and Skills Funding Agency’s apprenticeship funding rules.
Core and option apprenticeship standards will be allocated one funding band; different funding bands will not be allocated for different options. Where options have different costs associated with them, the funding band will be assigned based on the lowest cost option to achieve the apprenticeship standard. Training for any options taken beyond the ‘minimum’ required for the apprenticeship standard, would be outside the apprenticeship and employers will need to pay the difference from other funds.
During the apprenticeship standard development process, we will make an initial funding band allocation, followed by a final funding band recommendation.
We make an initial funding band allocation when your occupation proposal is agreed. We will do this using a calculation based on:
We will tell you the initial funding band allocation alongside our agreement of your occupation proposal. This enables you to develop your occupational standard and EPA plan with the initial funding band in mind, and consider whether it is the right amount of funding to deliver a high quality apprenticeship.
If you do not think the initial funding band allocation is right, you can submit evidence to us to inform the final funding band recommendation. You do this by completing the ‘Apprenticeship training plan’ form and submitting this with training provider and EPAO quotes alongside your EPA plan.
The ‘Apprenticeship Training Plan’ form requires you to set out the training that you would expect a typical apprentice to receive. You can then send this with the ‘Apprenticeship training delivery quote’ form to training providers to get quotes for the training required to deliver your apprenticeship standard.
It is important to provide all the information requested on your Apprenticeship Training Plan form as this will be your only chance to submit information to inform our final funding band recommendation.
The information in your Apprenticeship Training plan is not the only evidence we use to make a final funding band recommendation. We will consider a range of factors, including:
We will share our final funding band recommendation with you, when your EPA plan is approved. You will have ten working days to either accept or appeal the recommendation.
Following your acceptance, we will make a final funding band recommendation to the Secretary of State for Education.
The Secretary of State for Education will make the final decision on the funding band for each apprenticeship standard and we will notify you once the final decision is taken.
If you want to submit evidence to us to inform the final funding band recommendation, you will need to complete an Apprenticeship Training Plan’ form. You can use this form to describe the off-the-job training a typical apprentice needs to achieve the occupational standard, excluding English and maths. You can complete this form either by including relevant information relating to off-the-job training when you submit your occupational standard (on the duties page of the apprenticeship builder template) - in which case a pre-populated apprenticeship training form will be generated for you to send to providers - or you can input the same information directly onto the apprenticeship training form at a later date. Once completed you can share it with training providers to get quotes for the cost of delivering the apprenticeship standard. To provide a quote, training providers should use our ‘Apprenticeship Training Delivery’ quote form. You can use the same form to get a quote from an EPAO for delivering EPA for your apprenticeship standard, based on your draft EPA plan.
In some instances, we may ask you to submit this evidence even if you are happy with your initial funding band allocation. This may be the case where the route panel or Institute board want to look in detail at the proposed funding for your apprenticeship standard. We will make sure you know well in advance if this is the case.
We recommend that you start completing the ‘Apprenticeship Training Plan’ form alongside writing your occupational standard. The form asks you to provide information about a typical training programme for an apprentice based on your occupational standard, and so the two tasks should fit together well.
Once you are happy that you have described the typical training programme for an apprentice you can share this plan with training providers, who will be able to quote for the costs of delivering the training you have described. The quotes will then need to be submitted as part of the completed ‘Apprenticeship Training Plan’ form. There is guidance in the form on how to complete it.
The completed ‘Apprenticeship Training Plan’ form and training provider quotes must be sent to us alongside your EPA plan submission, if you want us to consider them as part of your final funding band recommendation. You will need to attach it to the EPA plan part of the template. Your relationship manager (RM) must confirm the form is ready for our consideration, before you attach it to the EPA plan submission.
Information on how to submit the template.
After an apprenticeship standard is approved for delivery, it might be necessary to revise the occupational standard and/or the end-point assessment plan.
Depending on what those changes are, the Institute might need to recommend a new funding band. You should discuss any changes with your Relationship Manager (RM), who will advise you on the likelihood of your proposed changes resulting in a new funding band.
If a new funding band recommendation is needed, the Institute will use the same approach as it does in setting a new final funding band (see section 2 above).
It is important to note that if a new funding band recommendation is needed, this could be lower, the same, or higher than the current funding band assigned to the apprenticeship standard. If the Institute recommends a new funding band this will be based on the 30 band structure. More information on this is available.
In order for your RM to provide you with a view on whether a new funding band recommendation is likely, you need to provide them with as much information as possible about the changes you intend to make to the occupational standard and/or assessment plan.
Some common scenarios are set out below.
Scenarios in which a new funding band recommendation will typically be made
Scenarios in which a new funding band recommendation will not typically be made
Scenarios in which you should discuss further with your Relationship Manager.
Please note that this list is not exhaustive and any proposed changes should be discussed with your RM. |
For further information about submitting revisions, please see the link below;
You can access both the apprenticeship training plan form and the apprenticeship training delivery quote forms by following the links below.
| Date | Change |
| 28/11/2018 |
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| 22/08/2018 |
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