The Apprenticeship Grant for Employers, AGE 16-24, enables £1500 to be awarded to eligible employers* who commit to employing an Apprentice. Confirmation that you have not taken on an Apprentice in the previous 12 months will be required.

Priority will be given to employers with less than 50 employees, however grants are available for those with up to 1000 employees. The Apprentice must be aged between 16 and 24, employed for a minimum of 30 hours per week and be paid the Apprenticeship wage of £2.65 per hour. If the Apprentice is aged 19 or above and has completed the first year of their Apprenticeship programme, then you must pay the Apprentice the National Minimum Wage appropriate for their age group.

Employers can claim this grant for up to 10 Apprentices. However, to do this, you must provide written confirmation at the beginning of the recruitment process, as to how many Apprentices you are going to employ and when.

The £1500 is in addition to the training costs of the Apprenticeship framework which are met in full for young people aged 16 to 18 and 50% for those aged 19 to 24.

Employers become eligible to receive payment of the £1500 grant when the apprentice completes week 13 of their Apprenticeship programme and will need to invoice Bournemouth and Poole College.  Please note it may take up to 9 weeks for that payment to be processed by the Skills Funding Agency and paid to The College, who will then fulfil the grant payment within 30 days.  The payment is a grant and is exempt from VAT.

Employers who are interested in taking advantage of this fantastic opportunity should contact the Business Enterprise Team now on 01202 205500 / apprenticeships@bpc.ac.uk

* Terms and conditions apply - see factsheet below.