Co-investment

Co-investment is when employers share the cost of training and assessing apprentices with the government. 

Your organisation may need to pay some of the cost, but the government will pay the rest up to the funding band maximum. If the apprenticeship started: 

• on or after 1 April 2019, your organisation must pay 5% of the total cost
• before 1 April 2019, your organisation must pay 10% of the total cost

Employers that do not pay the levy

If your organisation does not pay the levy, then it always co-invests with the government with the appropriate percentage that you pay as advised above.

From 1st of April 2024, employers who do not pay the levy will have the apprenticeship training costs fully funded for any new apprenticeships (with a start date on or after 1 April 2024) that meet the criteria below:

• aged between 16 and 21 years old, or
• aged between 22 and 24 years-old who have an Education, Health and Care (EHC) plan and / or have been in the care of their local authority

If you begin to pay the apprenticeship levy, future apprenticeship starts will use your levy balance and you will not need to pay co-investment, unless you do not have sufficient levy within your account for all your monthly costs.

It is important to monitor your levy balance and monthly payments to ensure you pay the correct co-investment. This can be checked within the Finance section of your Apprenticeship Service account.

If your account does not update to start showing the levy balance within your account, you may need to remove your PAYE scheme and re-add this ensuring you use your Government Gateway credentials for your organisation.

Please note that levy is transferred from HMRC to the Apprenticeship Service around the 23^rd of each month.

Levy-paying employers

Your account will automatically go into co-investment if you do not have enough apprenticeship funds to pay for training and assessment. It is important to monitor your levy balance and monthly payments to ensure you pay the correct co-investment.

You cannot carry apprenticeship costs into the next month.

Where an employer is showing as a levy payer in their Apprenticeship Service
account, but they haven’t declared / paid any apprenticeship levy within the last
2 years (from when the eligible apprentice starts), in order to waive the co-investment requirement the employer will need to contact the Apprenticeship Service Support Desk on 08000 150 600 or email helpdesk@manage-apprenticeships.service.gov.uk to update their AS Account.

Extra funding

Your organisation could also get extra funding. Details of this can be found under Additional payments for employers, providers and apprentices in the Apprenticeship funding rules

Last updated on 30 April 2025 13:53