British Cleaning Council Chair, Delia Cannings, reports.
If your company has a wage bill of over £3 million annually, then it already pays 0.5% annually in compulsory Apprenticeship Levy payments.
Since the levy’s introduction in 2017, many cleaning and hygiene companies have seen this money go straight to the Government instead of being used for training staff because there was no apprenticeship standard suitable for many sector firms. We estimate up to £20 million of our sector’s cash has drained away in this fashion every year.
Now the Cleaning Hygiene Operative (CHO) Apprenticeship (Level 2) has been approved, providing a route for larger firms to divert these payments to invest into staff. Smaller firms can also use gifted – or transferred - levy payments to fund the initiative in their workplaces.
The funding band – the amount of levy money a business can spend on training and assessing an apprentice - has been agreed at a generous £5000 each, allowing for good, quality training.
If you want to know more, then sign up for one of the free Apprenticeship Advice and Guidance sessions we are holding on 26 October and 2, 9 and 15 November. We are welcoming anyone interested in the scheme, not just employers.
These free, 30-minute long, expert-led sessions will be held via Zoom workshops so it is ultra-easy to take part – just book with us in advance. The information sessions will tell you how to be ready for the launch of the scheme, which is expected early next year.
Topics will include:
How to access the opportunity – ie, how to select a provider and agree the delivery plan. The format might include face-to-face to group sessions, observations and functional skills - Maths and English options>
How to select a provider – credentials, experience and location are all important.
How to gift Levy funds and the benefits of gifting.
An overview of the End Point Assessment (EPA).
Tips for a successful EPA for apprentices will be provided by an industry experienced assessor.
Next steps and the way forward.
Sessions should be booked via [email protected].
This is a brilliant opportunity for our industry. Training and education is essential in our sector. Staff need to be taught to clean first, disinfect later, to handle chemicals, to understand the classification of various soil types, sound awareness of the contribution the sector can make to the green agenda as well as the increasingly imported role of technology and digital platforms.
This scheme has the potential to share knowledge of these kinds of skills among the workforce and educate them to the correct standard, driving the professionalisation of the sector.
The CHO Apprenticeship will help tackle ignorant and unfounded perceptions of people outside the cleaning and hygiene sector that the work of staff is ‘unskilled’. We in the industry know how wrong this is and that it is essential to correct this misapprehension.
The apprenticeship will also form part of a career ladder, that will be key to attracting the new joiners we urgently need.
We need to encourage its widespread take up. I believe the Government will be watching to see how popular the CHO Apprenticeships are and there is a risk the scheme could be withdrawn if there are too few takers.
Our sector fought long and hard to get approval for the CHO, and we do not want to put it at risk. Therefore, I urge you to sign up for an upcoming AAG session and support our battle for cleaning workforce recognition though education and training.
www.britishcleaningcouncil.org
About the contributor
Delia Cannings
Chair
British Cleaning Council