""A lot of the tradespeople who can train apprentices are sole traders," said Mewett. "The burden of taking on an apprentice is significant, with the paperwork, responsibility, and lack of funding that comes with it. The system just isn't working for small businesses.""
""The government has billions of unspent levy funds that could be redeployed to help take some of the burden away from tradespeople who do want to train," he said."
The UK faces a projected shortfall of about 250,000 skilled tradespeople by 2030 as apprenticeships fail to attract entrants into plumbing, carpentry, and electrical work. Only 2% of sole traders hired an apprentice in the past year, while one in four tradespeople are expected to retire within five years. The apprenticeship levy is a 0.5% annual tax on payrolls over £3 million, but many sole traders find the levy system and apprenticeship administration burdensome. Screwfix has funded 50 apprenticeships since 2022 via a flexi-job agency that handles paperwork and matches trainees. More than £3.3 billion of levy funds have been returned since May 2019 under 'use it or lose it' rules, prompting calls to unlock unspent funds to expand small‑employer support schemes.
Read at Business Matters
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