The impact of the Apprenticeship Levy on apprenticeships and other training outcomes

Since April 2017, UK employers with an annual pay bill above £3 million have contributed to the Apprenticeship Levy. In this paper we use a matched firm-learner dataset to explore changes in apprenticeship and other training outcomes between 2015/16 and 2018/19, a period which spans the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy. The findings reveal that over the period, there was a substantial shift away from lower-level apprenticeship starts to higher-level starts. Moreover, this shift was greater for employers who were required to pay the Levy, with smaller reductions in lower-level...  [+] Show more

Since April 2017, UK employers with an annual pay bill above £3 million have contributed to the Apprenticeship Levy. In this paper we use a matched firm-learner dataset to explore changes in apprenticeship and other training outcomes between 2015/16 and 2018/19, a period which spans the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy. The findings reveal that over the period, there was a substantial shift away from lower-level apprenticeship starts to higher-level starts. Moreover, this shift was greater for employers who were required to pay the Levy, with smaller reductions in lower-level apprenticeships, and greater increases in higher-level apprenticeships when compared to similar non-Levy paying employers. No substantial differences were observed for other (non-apprenticeship) training undertaken over the same period.

Published abstract.