Steve Elliott Chief Executive of the Chemical Industries
Association has joined with fellow industry leaders and charities in asking the
new Secretary of State for Education to review the Apprenticeship Levy.
In a letter to Justine Greening signed by Steve and the
heads of EEF, Aerospace & Defence, CIPD, British Plastics, Food &
Drink, IoD, Printing, TechUK, Campaign for Science & Engineering, CIPD and the
Charity Finance Group, criticism has been made of promised and delayed
guidance, potential lowering of quality and the lack of availability of the
required payroll software, notwithstanding the overall cost and timing of the
levy. The letter says “We therefore urge government to take a considered pause
and work with charities, industry and other stakeholders to ensure that the
levy is fit for purpose, until which time the levy should not go ahead”.
Steve Elliott said ““We all want to see more apprentices and we all believe a levy
could be part of the solution. The delay we are seeking will allow for what at
the moment is a confused mechanism that has the potential for creating fewer
apprenticeships, to become part of an effective solution.”
Ends
Notes
The full letter is here https://www.cia.org.uk/Portals/0/Position%20statements/ApprenticeshipLevyLetter-5thAugust2016.pdf
For further information please
call Simon Marsh 07951 389197 or Luke Symns 0207 963 6791.
The chemical and pharmaceutical industry adds £15 billion of value to the UK economy
every year from total annual turnover of around £50 billion.
The UK is a leading global chemical and pharmaceutical producer.
The chemical and pharmaceutical sector is the UK’s largest manufacturing
exporter with annual exports of close to £50 billion.
Over £4 billion of capital and R&D investment is made by
UK chemical and pharmaceutical companies.
The sector employs around 140,000 people directly and supports in total around
half a million jobs in the UK economy. The direct workforce is highly skilled
and earns on average 30% more than the average UK manufacturing worker.