Fund apprenticeship training

All apprenticeship training in England is arranged and paid for through the apprenticeship service. How much you pay yourself depends on whether you pay the Apprenticeship Levy and on the apprentice's age when their training starts. The rules here apply to apprenticeships starting on or after 1 August 2026. An apprenticeship keeps the funding rules that applied on the day it started.

Set up your apprenticeship service account

To create an account you need a GOV.UK One Login linked to your work email address, authority to add your PAYE schemes, and authority to accept the employer agreement on behalf of your organisation. Levy payers sign in with the organisation's Government Gateway. Other employers can use their accounts office reference number and employer PAYE scheme reference instead.

You can give colleagues permission to approve apprentice details and training costs, to reconcile payments to providers and to sign the employer agreement. Give at least one other person full access, so that someone can act if the account owner is away or leaves.

Choose the training and agree a price

Each apprenticeship standard sits in a funding band, which is the most that levy funds or government funding will pay for its training and end-point assessment. You agree the price with a training provider on the approved register. If the price is above the band, you pay the difference directly to the provider.

Funding pays for training and end-point assessment only. It does not pay the apprentice's wages or travel.

Spend your levy funds

If you pay the levy, the funds that enter your account each month are based on the levy you declare to HMRC, multiplied by the share of your pay bill paid to employees who live in England. You can spend them on your own apprenticeships and apprenticeship units, or transfer them to another employer.

Funds that enter your account from 1 August 2026 expire after 12 months, and funds that entered before then keep the earlier 24-month expiry. The oldest funds are used up first. The 10% government top-up is not added to funds that enter your account from 1 August 2026.

If you run out of funds, the government pays the full cost, up to the funding band maximum, for apprentices aged 16 to 24 when their training starts. For apprentices aged 25 or over, you pay 25% and the government pays 75%.

Transfer funds you will not use

You can transfer up to 50% of the levy you declared for the previous tax year to other employers, such as businesses in your supply chain. The allowance covers apprenticeships and apprenticeship units, is recalculated each tax year, and anything you do not use is not carried forward.

You can name the employer you want to support through a direct transfer connection, or advertise a pledge that other employers apply for. The transfer pays 100% of the training and assessment cost up to the funding band maximum. Once you approve an apprenticeship funded by a transfer, you are committed to paying for it until it ends, and you cannot stop the payments.

Get funding if you do not pay the levy

Reserve funding in the finance section of your account before the apprentice starts, or let your training provider reserve it for you. You can reserve up to 3 months before the planned start, and there is no limit on the number of apprentices you take on.

The government pays the full cost, up to the funding band maximum, for apprentices aged 16 to 24 when their training starts. For apprentices aged 25 or over, you pay 5% and the government pays 95%. You pay your share to the training provider over the length of the apprenticeship.

Claim extra payments

You get an extra £1,000, paid in 2 instalments through your training provider, for an apprentice aged 16 to 18, or aged 19 to 24 who has an education, health and care plan or has been in care. These payments do not come out of your levy funds.

If you do not pay the levy, you can also get a hiring payment of up to £2,000 for a new apprentice aged 16 to 24 whose apprenticeship starts on or after 1 October 2026 and who has worked for you for no more than 90 days before it starts.

Check the age limit for level 7

A level 7 apprenticeship is funded only if the apprentice is aged 16 to 21 when training starts, or 22 to 24 with an education, health and care plan or a care background. For anyone older, you pay the whole cost yourself.