The establishment’s newly launched Manufacturing Engineering Degree Apprenticeship is therefore effectively available for free to levy-paying employers, while non-levy payers can get 95% of the cost of tuition and assessment funded through the levy. The university also highlights that employers can benefit from a reduced payroll bill, as companies with apprentices under the age of 25 are not required to pay secondary Class 1 Employer National Insurance contributions on earnings up to the upper earnings limit.
Senior Lecturer, Stephen Hillyard, says: “Given the demand for highly skilled engineers and access to Levy funding, apprenticeships have changed for the better.
“They are designed to give more control and greater opportunities to address the ever-increasing skills shortages in the engineering sector.
“The University of Northampton is proud to be offering this newly validated L6 Manufacturing Engineering Degree Apprenticeship to support employers in planning to reduce their skills gaps, which, in turn, helps them to become more future proof.”
He added: “For this qualification, employers are given the opportunity to cash in on the Apprenticeship Levy and this helps them to reduce future recruitment costs and gain an advantage over their competitors.
“Given the position we find ourselves in today’s world, now is the perfect time to develop your own home-grown engineering talent.”
The L6 Manufacturing Engineering Degree Apprenticeship allows the student to combine work and study by mixing on-the-job training with University classroom learning. Employers have the benefit of recruiting an apprentice who will be employed to do a real job while studying for a formal BSc Engineering qualification. This is typically for one day a week at the University’s Waterside campus.
