Apprenticeship levy comes into force as legal apprenticeships take off

updated on 06 April 2017

The government’s apprenticeship levy, which will take payments from larger UK businesses to fund apprenticeship programmes across a range of sectors, comes into force today (6 April).

Employers which have an annual pay bill exceeding £3 million a year will now have to pay a sum worth 0.5% of that pay bill into the government’s apprenticeship funding scheme each year, which will enable more young people to access rewarding careers through apprenticeships, which also provide an alternative to university and its associated costs.

The levy has proven to be controversial in some sectors, with many employers across the country stating that they have little or no knowledge of how the levy will work, including how much it will cost them. However, apprenticeships in the legal profession have already taken off successfully, and many of the larger law firms should be well placed to implement the levy and continue training legal apprentices as they are already doing.

You can find and apply for legal apprenticeships here on LCN. And you can also find out information on the types of legal apprenticeships, what they involve, their entry requirements and the careers they lead to.