Apprenticeship funding reforms are a victory for the industry and will give small salons peace of mind, says NHBF

Today’s announcement by the Department for Education of a proposed new funding model for apprenticeships is potentially great news for small salons that had feared they would be forced to contribute to the cost of training, the NHBF has said.

The Department for Education has proposed that while, in general, employers will be required to “co-invest” 10% of the cost of training, this will be waived for small businesses employing fewer than 50 people.  Businesses taking on apprentices aged between 16-18 or those aged 19-24 who have been in care or who have a local authority care plan will receive £1000 to support the additional costs of training these groups.

NHBF chief executive Hilary Hall said: There is a lot of detail in this announcement that will need to be digested but, at first sight, this looks to be very positive news for small salons.

Hairdressers, barbers and beauty salons have a long and proud tradition of investing in training young people. But there had been real concerns within the industry about the effect that being asked to contribute to training would have had on the appetite of small firms with limited budgets to take on apprentices in the future.

“If, as it now appears, small salons will still be able to get 100% of their training costs paid for by the government, at least for younger apprentices, that gives much-needed clarity and peace of mind to salons. Combined with the new apprenticeship training and assessment frameworks being put in place, this could act as a real stimulus to training in our industry.

“This is also vindication of all the hard work the NHBF has done behind the scenes to get a better deal for small businesses from government. At one point there was talk of small salons being asked to pay as much as a third of the cost of training, so for training to remain 100% subsidised in this way is a major victory for the industry.

“One question mark, however, is what this will mean for older trainees, those who stay in school until 18 and only then decide an apprenticeship is for them? If the 100% subsidy is only for younger trainees, it stands to reason there will be less incentive for salons to take on older school leavers.

“To that end, it will be important for more work to be done with schools and parents to emphasise the value of taking up an apprenticeship at the age of 16 rather than waiting until 18, and then potentially being disadvantaged as a result.

“We look forward to continuing to work with the government on this issue, and will be feeding into the discussion process that has now been outlined by ministers,” Hilary added.

Apprenticeship funding reform document click here to download or watch video from The Skills Funding Agency.