As a Levy-paying employer, how much would we be liable to pay if an apprentice leaves their apprenticeship or is dismissed by us?

In exceptional circumstances, an apprentice may leave their apprenticeship programme early. If this situation occurs, as an employer you'll be liable to pay a cost that's dependent on a number of factors, including: /

Courses selected
When the courses have been scheduled
The cost of the courses already attended
The amount of funds received from the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA)

It's important to note that liability costs are only applicable if your apprentice leaves their apprenticeship. We have a number of checks and balances in place to mitigate this, including employer mentors who'll work closely with the apprentice and a Learning Mentor from Firebrand who'll provide support through the entirety of the programme.

We also employ a 'red, amber, green' system which the Learning Mentors use to identify any early concerns with progression of the apprentice. This is communicated to the learner and workplace mentor.

Why do you charge a Liability Cost?

Firebrand’s viability in any individual apprenticeship is almost entirely based around the successful completion of the whole apprenticeship programme. This is a function of the funding profile paid by the ESFA to Firebrand through the duration of the programme. This makes our partnership with each employer the cornerstone of the contractual relationship for seeing the whole apprenticeship programme through.

Our experience in helping thousands of individuals with IT skills acquisition has led to an approach where we accelerate IT training within apprenticeship programmes. As a result, learning occurs in blocks of off the job training that can then be consolidated by experience gained at work.

Firebrand's accelerated training approach benefits learners and employers as learners can be more productive in the workplace quicker. Consequently Firebrand ‘invests’ in the programme ahead of receipts from the government to make this possible and relies for its return on successful completion of the whole programme.

In a situation when an apprentice leaves an apprenticeship programme early for a reason that lies beyond Firebrand’s control, our accelerated approach agreed between you and us creates a loss-making scenario for Firebrand in that apprenticeship.

In this situation, Firebrand reserves the right to charge you, as an employer, to cover our reasonable costs to ensure that Firebrand is not out of pocket having delivered in accordance with this agreement.

As a Levy-paying employer, how much would we be liable to pay if an apprentice leaves their apprenticeship or is dismissed by us?

Why do you charge a Liability Cost?

DISCLAIMER