Transferring your apprenticeship levy
EmployerThis article sits within the Employer sectionYou can use your apprenticeship service account to transfer up to 50% of your unused levy funds to a business of your choice.
By transferring levy funds, you will be supporting other businesses in paying for their apprenticeship training and assessment costs (up to the funding band maximum). All businesses will need an apprenticeship service account to receive a transfer of levy funds.
You can also find businesses to support by:
- working with employers in your supply chain
- getting in touch with employers in your industry
- working with regional partners
The benefits
Transferring levy funds is a great way to help businesses and close the skills gaps in sectors and locations you want to support - creating more job and career development opportunities across England.
Public funding Pledge
You will be able to create a public funding pledge which is shown online so businesses can apply to you for a transfer of funds. You will need a minimum of £2000 left on your estimated remaining transfer balance to make another pledge.
Pledge and transfer levy funds
To help you find another business to transfer your levy funding to, you can:
- create a public funding pledge that is searchable online
- set the criteria for your transfer pledge
- review and approve applications
- choose how you want to approve the applications
Create a transfer pledge.
To create a transfer pledge, you will be asked to: -
- put the amount you want to pledge
- choose whether to show your organisations name publicly
- select your criteria:
- Location
- Sector
- Job Role
- Qualification levels
The criteria are optional however, if you do not select any criteria then it is assumed that any transfer request will automatically be a 100% match.
Pledges that match 100%
Pledges that match the criteria 100% will be automatically approved. If you want to do further checks, you can delay the automatic approval for up to 6 weeks after which it will be automatically approved.
When you create a pledge, you will be asked the following:
- approve or delay applications for 100% match
- approve immediately, no delay
- I want to do my own checks; I understand I have up to 6 weeks to complete them
Matches are approved in date order, with the earliest being approved first.
What happens if there is no 100% match
If auto approval doesn’t find a 100% match, the application will not be auto approved. You will need to manually review the applications and approve or decline them in a timely manner.
Once the pledge is created
Once submitted, your pledge will be advertised on a public website so that businesses can search and apply for a transfer of funds.
You can share the pledge link with organisations you work with.
You will receive a notification when a business applies for the funding transfer.
You can then:
- view applications
- accept applications
- reject applications
If Pledge funds Fall below £2000
No further applications will be auto approved once your pledge has insufficient funds.
Pledge funds that are due to fall below £2000, once completed will automatically expire due to the low remaining value.
When will your transfer applications expire
If you have not approved or declined a transfer application within 3 months, it will now automatically expire. 7 days before an application expires you will see a warning on the service. You should review all applications regularly before they expire.
If you created a pledge after the 23 August 2023, our new auto approval feature will approve 100% matches for you. However, you must still regularly review any pending applications that are below 100%, or they will expire 3 months after the date they were received.
If you created a pledge before the 23 August 2023, you must regularly review all pending applications manually or they will expire 3 months after the date they were received.
Manage your transfer finances
To make it easier for you to manage your transfer finances we’ve updated how you view your transfer allowance and estimated apprenticeship costs. In your account you can now:
- view your estimated apprenticeship costs for a pledge application
- view your transfer allowance for this financial year
- view your estimated remaining transfer balance
This will help you estimate how much of your transfer funds are being spent and what allowance you have remaining. Visit your Apprenticeship Service account > go to ‘Your transfers’ > ‘My transfer pledges’ > select your ‘Transfer pledge applications’.
Guidance
You can get further guidance on how to transfer apprenticeship funds using your apprenticeship service account, or our .GOV.UK guidance page. Please also see our Youtube video with a walkthrough:
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