May 2021

News 0 8 | Plant & Works Engineering www.pwemag.co.uk May 2021 The Manufacturing Technology Centre’s (MTC) SME salary support scheme and doubled Government incentives announced in the Budget mean that MTC employer partners can receive up to £8200 for hiring a new engineering apprentice. In the Budget, the government doubled and extended the financial incentives available to support employers who create new jobs for apprentices, incentivising workforce growth and helping to minimise unemployment. As part of the Chancellor’s plans to aid the UK economy’s COVID-19 recovery, businesses will now receive a bonus payment of £3000 per new apprentice hired until September 30, 2021, regardless of age. This is in addition to the £1000 payment for apprentices aged 16 to 18, meaning that some employers will receive a total of £4000. Firms can already access of a range of funds and financial incentives to support the employment of an apprentice. UK employers with a payroll of more than £3million can use their apprenticeship levy to cover training costs, while eligible smaller businesses can access a levy transfer fund created through an exclusive partnership between MTC Apprenticeships and Lloyds Bank to fund their apprentice’s training. In addition, SMEs with fewer than 50 employees can apply to receive up to a further £4200 towards their apprentice’s wages through MTC Apprenticeships’ SME Salary Support Scheme. As well as paying for the apprenticeship training, this extra funding now takes the available support up to a maximum of £8200, significantly offsetting the cost of employing an apprentice for the first year of their programme. Managing director of MTC Apprenticeships, David Hughes MBE, said: “Apprentices are set to be instrumental in supporting Britain’s economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. As the country begins to re-open after the third national lockdown, manufacturers need to ensure their workforces can meet demand and support their future growth. Announcing the support package during his 2021 Budget statement, Chancellor Rishi Sunak said, ‘Protecting, creating and supporting jobs remains my highest priority. We want businesses to hire new apprentices, so we’re paying them more to do it. We’re taking what works to get people into jobs and making it better. Hughes added: “The improved scheme is a fantastic opportunity for businesses of all sizes to take advantage of the benefits apprentices offer. Apprenticeships are already a cost effective way to attract enthusiastic, motivated, new talent, helping businesses to future proof their workforce and reinvigorate current staff, as well as enabling firms to retain existing expertise by passing on knowledge and skills to the next generation. The MTC’s advanced manufacturing apprenticeship programmes include exposure to disruptive technologies and new ways of working, empowering apprentices to help their employers to accelerate innovation and increase productivity.” After receiving a record number of applications last year, and with a pool of top quality, pre-screened candidates ready to be matched with prospective employers, the MTC Apprenticeships team of training and funding experts is primed to support manufacturers to attract, secure and fund the best new talent for their business’s future. MTC helps employers access up to £8200 per apprentice As we approach the onset of summer and the dust of the Budget has settled down and the country begins the gruel route out of lockdown how does the outlook appear for manufacturers. The big announcement from the Budget was the superdeduction tax which our evidence shows has provided a significant boost to confidence especially among mid- size and larger companies, with the planned rise in Corporation Tax doing little on the surface to impact significantly on investment domestically or, from overseas. According to the latest Make UK survey almost a quarter of companies said they plan to increase investment as a direct response to the ‘superdeduction’ tax with more than a quarter saying they will bring forward investment plans in response. Just under half said there would be no change to their investment plans or their plans were too rigid to change. The incentive was also seen by almost a third of companies as the Budget measure which had the biggest impact followed by the decision to extend the furlough scheme and boost to R&D. However, we still believe given the UK’s longstanding poor performance on investment there remains a need for a longer-term, broad-ranging industrial strategy that will genuinely put manufacturing at the heart of plans to recover from the pandemic. This should encompass a partnership between Government, Industry and the UK’s world class science base to boost the UK’s innovation and investment performance. Looking further ahead, conditions for the sector are continuing to improve for the sector overall with a range of business surveys showing the sector is outperforming other parts of the economy which are still subject to restrictions. As we move into the sector half of the year the key is to ensure that the rebound in manufacturing performance continues and the Government commits to its objective of bringing forward policies that will begin to level up regional performance through a mix of public and private investment. By MAKE UK chief executive, Stephen Phipson MAKE uk - the manufacturers’ organisation monthly news comment