Call for change in Apprenticeship Levy

Scottish Retailers claim they are getting a “raw deal” from the Apprenticeship Levy introduced by Holyrood.

In Scottish Apprenticeship Week, the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) has challenged the Scottish Government to do more with the revenues raised to help the sector. The SRC said in the first year of the levy Scottish retailers paid £15 million but got “no extra support than in the previous year”.

It added: “The Flexible Work- place Development Fund, meant to provide skills training, was established in a way as to be of little or no use to retailers of scale. There is also little evidence of an increased number of retail modern apprenticeship starts.”

Ewan Macdonald-russell, SRC head of policy, said: “Whilst businesses in England have a transparent account they can access and direct towards training, equivalent businesses in Scotland are paying what looks more and more like a tax on employing workers.”