Action for Children's Strategic use of the Levy
In recent years, the Apprenticeship Levy has become an important tool for HR and L&D teams to invest in their workforce's development, with demand for degree apprenticeships on the rise. Debbie Winning tells us about strategically harnessing its potential at Action for Children.
"We maximize our Levy investment. We never have any reclaimed funds at the end of the month, and we ensure that every penny is spent to develop our staff. We also use co-investment funding from other organisations which allows us to achieve even more."
Debbie Winning, the Qualifications and Apprenticeships Officer at Action for Children, oversees the charity's apprenticeships and work-based learning and development programmes.
Debbie is passionate about apprenticeships and professional development, and the role it plays to support career progression and social mobility. This can also be seen through her role as co-Chair of the Achieve Network - the support network for anyone who is undertaking a qualification or apprenticeship.
"After the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy in 2017, Action for Children made a commitment to fully utilise the Levy to upskill our staff. Prior to this we supported qualifications attainment through commercial means, a necessary but large burden on charitable funds. The introduction of the Levy enabled us to increase the number and breadth of qualifications we can offer our workforce and redirecting charitable funds to service provision."
The Apprenticeship Levy has enabled Action for Children to promote professional development opportunities, previously considered out of reach for some staff within the organisation Debbie explains. The organisation is fully committed to continuously enhance the learning and development opportunities. Since 2017 its apprenticeship offering to staff has gone from 5 to 32 programmes in 2023, clearly highlighting this commitment:
"Apprenticeships are a really important strand of our learning and development strategy, enabling us to address skills gaps and provide professional development opportunities to ensure a highly skilled and qualified workforce."
"The value of apprenticeships is recognised and actively promoted at all levels within our organisation - from our trustees to our frontline workers. Apprenticeships contribute to the retention of key talent across hard to recruit and highly regulated roles. Apprenticeships also provide a key talent pipeline in our charity, enabling entry level recruitment and providing the vehicle to ‘grow our own’ talent."
Debbie Winning, Qualifications and Apprenticeship Officer
Top 100 Apprenticeship Employer
Action for Children is widely recognised for their investment in apprenticeships and their drive to provide development opportunities for all employees.
"Our placement in the Top 100 Apprenticeship Employer list in 2022 and winning the South East regional, National apprenticeship awards – Large employer 2023 is testament to the investment and commitment to delivery at all levels. The increasing breadth of our apprenticeships offer is a tangible measure of success."
Partnering with Corndel
The partnership with Corndel has enabled Action for Children to offer a wide range of qualifications and apprenticeships to staff at all levels.
"The support we have received from Corndel has been phenomenal. Their team have attended webinars and information session with our staff teams, to ensure that apprentices and managers are fully aware of what is required prior to starting on the apprenticeship programmes. We are hoping that our relationship with Corndel will continue to grow even bigger in the future."
