Despite wide agreement that the UK food industry is facing a recruitment crisis, with a looming shortage of skilled workers wanting to enter the industry, food manufacturers are objecting strongly to the government's plan to raise a levy on large businesses to pay for apprenticeships.
The Apprenticeship Levy was announced in the November 2015 Budget, and is set to come into effect in April 2017. It means that all employers with a wages bill of more than £3 million will pay 0.5% of their wages bill into a fund, to pay for the training of apprentices. The government estimates the Levy would raise £3 billion a year, and fund three million apprentices. Because of the £3 million cut off, the vast majority of businesses -- including small-scale food businesses -- will not have to pay anything.
But in a recent report in Foodmanufacture online, the manufacturers' trade association EEF has described the levy as a 'looming car crash', and called for a delay so 'flaws' in the regulation can be corrected.
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