All apprenticeships are arranged through the apprenticeship service. To use the apprenticeship service employers need to create an account.

You’ll need:

a GOV.UK One Login account linked to an email address you use for work - you can create this at the same time as creating your apprenticeship service account

the Government Gateway login for your organisation (or you can use the accounts office reference number and employer PAYE scheme reference number if your annual pay bill is less than £3 million)

authority to add PAYE schemes to the account

authority to accept the employer agreement on behalf of your organisation

We’ll ask you to:

If you are a small employer who does not pay the apprenticeship levy, you will need your PAYE scheme reference number, also known as an employer reference number (ERN), and your account office reference number (AORN).

If your business has no employees, then you may not have a PAYE scheme reference number. You will need to register as an employer with HMRC to receive your PAYE scheme reference number.

If you have recently received a PAYE scheme reference number, you need to complete some steps before setting up your apprenticeship service account:

Once you are ready to register, you can create an account to manage apprenticeships.

As an employer, you’ll be able to:

As an employer who pays the apprenticeship levy, you’ll be able to:

As an employer that does not pay the apprenticeship levy you’ll be able to reserve apprenticeship funding.

You need to think about who you want to have access to your apprenticeship service account. You can control what each person can do.

You can give staff members permission to:

You should give at least one other team member full access. This means that if the account owner is on holiday or leaves the organisation, someone else can sign an agreement or make changes.

If you pay the apprenticeship levy, you will need to work with your:

The amount of funding entering your account each month is calculated by:

Smaller employers who do not pay the apprenticeship levy share the cost of training and assessing their apprentices with the government. This is called ‘co-investment’.

For new apprenticeships starting on or after 1 April 2019 you pay 5% towards the cost of apprenticeship training. The government will pay the rest (95%) up to the funding band maximum.

All apprenticeships that started before 1 April 2019 will continue at the previous co-investment rate of 10%.

You can pay the difference from your own budget if the price of training is more than the funding band maximum.

There are certain circumstances where the government will fully fund apprenticeship training costs, up to the funding band maximum. Find out more from the .

As a smaller employer, you will need to reserve funds in the ‘finance’ section of your apprenticeship service account before starting an apprentice. You can also give your training provider permission to reserve funds on your behalf.

You will need to know:

Before the apprentice starts their training, you can change the apprenticeship start date and training course.

The reservation period for employers who do not pay the apprenticeship levy is 3 months. This means funds can be reserved for 3 months before the apprenticeship is planned to start.

From 3 April 2023, small employers who do not pay the levy are no longer limited to a maximum of 10 new apprenticeship starts – they are able to recruit as many high-quality apprentices as their business needs.

We will continue to monitor the number of reservations to help us manage the Government’s overall spend on apprenticeships.

Funds transferred from employers who pay the levy to other employers through the apprenticeship service are not included when counting the number of reservations.

You could be eligible for additional payments for apprenticeships depending on both you and your apprentice’s circumstances.

For further information:

You can also call 08000 150 600 or email helpdesk@manage-apprenticeships.service.gov.uk. Our opening times are 8am to 8pm, Monday to Friday. During our opening times, we will reply to emails within 4 hours.