From April 2017 employers with a payroll over £3M will pay a new tax, the Apprenticeship Levy, and will be able to use the funds raised to pay for Apprenticeship training.

The aim is for an extra 3 million apprenticeships to start by 2020, and the Levy is intended to provide £3Bn to fund this growth.

Employers best placed to benefit from their Levy funds are treating it as a ring-fenced budget for training and development, and are looking to spend as much of their fund as possible on skills programmes to drive business improvement.