Tech & Digital Apprenticeship Support for Logistics Companies – Next Steps.

Logistics and freight transportation is a crucial industry in the UK. The industry is the pulse of the nation, responsible for moving millions of items across the country daily.In previous blogs this month we have addressed the many challenges facing the Logistics Industry and the reasons to need to rapidly respond to changes on many different levels and within many different departments. This is because COVID-19 has only accelerated the need to address these challenges, with tech & digital skills gaps taking centre stage within organisations, reskilling a current member of staff or bringing in a new recruit both through an apprenticeship opportunity could be the solution.Today we want to breakdown and outline how Levy and Non-Levy Logistics companies can take this information, move forward to the next stage of the process and begin their apprenticeship journey.

An overview of how an Apprentice can help Logistics Companies

For the Logistics Industry to maintain and grow their competitive advantage they need skilled digital workers to manage their new tech and processes. Using technology these employees will be able to identify and realise new opportunities. They will also help to overcome challenges such as Brexit, Covid-19, changing customer demands, road safety, air quality targets and decarbonisation.At TDM we offer several different apprenticeship programs that would suit logistics companies and help them grow. An apprentices’ training can be adapted according to the needs of your business, they are highly motivated to learn new skills and can expand and upskill your workforce.

Other reasons to consider an Apprentice:

• Recruit, Reskill, Retain!
• Be more effective at winning new business in new markets
• Leverage internal efficiencies
• Meet a huge growth in online and physical customer demand
• Ensure regular, accessible market presence to drive awareness and interest
• Reduced risk through improved cyber and better handling of sensitive information
• A better and louder social voice and footprint
• Your customers are online; go to them!
• An injection of drive and enthusiasm in your workforce

The Apprenticeship Levy

Logistics companies will pay the Apprenticeship Levy if their payroll exceeds £3 million at a rate of 0.5% of the wage bill. The government top up this payment up by 10%. These helpful funds can only be spent on apprenticeship training for current or new staff members and are allocated to a training provider via the Apprenticeship Service, where the Levy is used to fund the full cost of an apprenticeship.If you are a Levy paying Logistics company then these funds have already been put aside to help and support these business decisions, so why not use them now?

The Apprenticeship Process

If you decide this is the right path for your organisation, we have a team of experts who are completely employer responsive from start to finish of a programme and can help guide and support you through the whole process, that being:

1. Register for a Digital Apprenticeship Service account (DAS)
2. Choose your apprenticeship standard
3. Organise your paperwork
4. Work out the costs
5. Your vacancy is advertised
6. Review CVs and interview for your apprenticeship
7. Finalise paperwork & contracts
8. Onboard your apprentice

To reiterate, our dedicated and employer responsive team of experts can help guide and support you through the whole process and everything in between, to make the process as simple and straight forward as possible.

The Apprenticeship Payment Incentives for employers

There is an Incentive payment for employers who hire a new apprentice. Employers will receive £3,000 for new employees of any age who start their apprenticeship from 1st April 2021 to 30th September 2021. See the GOV website link here to learn more about the payment, what it is, how you can apply and what to do next.

Next steps

If you would like to find out more about our tech and digital apprenticeships please request a call-back here or email enquiries@tdm.co.uk or call 0333 10 100 40.Get in touch with us as soon as possible to discuss your options.