The Skills Your Business Needs

Employers with an annual pay bill above £3 million normally pay the apprenticeship levy. If you are a levy payer, you can use funds in your Apprenticeship Service account for eligible training and assessment.

If you do not pay the levy, apprenticeships can still be a highly cost-effective way to develop your workforce. From August 2026, eligible apprentices aged 16 to 24 are fully funded for non-levy employers, up to the relevant funding band maximum. For learners aged 25 and over, the government generally contributes 95%, with the employer contributing 5%. We will confirm the funding route and any employer contribution before you commit.

We can help you review your Apprenticeship Service account, current commitments and likely future levy position. For levy-paying employers, funds now expire after 12 months, making active planning much more important than it was previously. The former automatic 10% government top-up has also ended for the new system.

Rather than encouraging a last-minute spend, we help you create a practical levy and skills plan: identify priority roles, phase recruitment or upskilling cohorts, forecast costs and protect funds for the workforce needs that matter most.

Both. Apprenticeships can support new recruits, but many employers use them to develop existing employees into more capable, confident and accountable people in role.

That could mean progressing a supervisor into management, developing a facilities or estates professional, strengthening business-support teams, building project-management capability, or creating a clearer development pathway for high-potential colleagues. The programme must provide genuine new learning and be relevant to the individual's job role and future development. We work with you to make sure the programme is purposeful, eligible and linked to real organisational need.

Apprentices need protected learning time, including off-the-job training. This is not simply ‘time away from work’; it is planned development that helps them become more effective in their role and apply new knowledge, skills and behaviours in the workplace.

The required minimum varies by apprenticeship standard and is set out by Skills England. We help employers design realistic timetables, involve line managers early and build learning around operational pressures wherever possible.

A strong programme balances development with delivery. You should expect clarity from us on time commitments, employer responsibilities, manager involvement and how progress will be monitored before a learner starts.

Where sufficient levy funds are available, eligible training and assessment costs are paid from your Apprenticeship Service account, up to the relevant funding band maximum.

For new starts from August 2026, if a levy-paying employer has insufficient funds, the employer contribution for an apprentice aged 25 or over is generally 25%, with government funding the remaining 75%. For non-levy employers, training for eligible 16 to 24-year-olds is fully funded; for learners aged 25 and over, the standard employer contribution is generally 5%.

We provide a transparent cost and funding view before enrolment, so there are no surprises around eligibility, funding bands, contributions or additional costs.

The right programme starts with your workforce challenge, not with a catalogue. We begin by understanding the roles you need to recruit, retain or strengthen; the capability gaps affecting performance; and the leadership, operational or technical capacity you need for the future.

We then recommend the most suitable apprenticeship pathway, or explain honestly where an apprenticeship is not the right solution. This can include programmes for operational teams, facilities and estates, business services, management and leadership, project delivery, early years, classroom support and other priority areas.

Our aim is to help you build skills that improve performance, resilience and progression, not simply fill places on a course.

We connect the apprenticeship to the employee's real responsibilities, your organisational priorities and the outcomes their manager needs to see. That means agreeing a clear role profile, starting point, development plan, workplace projects and regular reviews before and during the programme.

You should not receive a generic, one-size-fits-all experience. We work with employers to ensure learning is applied to live challenges, whether that is improving operational processes, strengthening compliance, developing people-management confidence, building estates capability or delivering a business improvement project.

The result should be measurable value for the learner, their line manager and the organisation.

Successful apprenticeships depend on the relationship between the learner, their line manager and the training provider. We make that relationship clear and manageable.

Employers can expect a named point of contact, a structured onboarding process, planned progress reviews, early identification of issues and straightforward communication about attendance, progress, learning time and next steps. Apprentices receive guidance, coaching and a clear plan; managers receive practical support so they know how to encourage development without having to become training experts themselves.

We believe good communication is not an added extra; it is fundamental to quality and completion.

Choose a provider that takes responsibility for outcomes, not just enrolments. At Train Together, we combine practical employer insight with a structured, responsive delivery model: clear advice before you commit, programmes aligned to real roles, transparent funding guidance, support for managers and learners, and regular communication throughout.

We will be honest about whether an apprenticeship is the right route, help you navigate a changing Growth and Skills Levy landscape, and work with you to turn training into stronger capability, retention and progression.

For employers who have been disappointed by a previous provider, our starting point is simple: listen carefully, establish what has not worked, and build a more accountable partnership.