Guidance

Employer support fund: guidance for employers

Published 28 March 2023

Applies to England

The employer support fund is a one-year fund. It provides support for legitimate costs incurred whilst delivering high-quality T Level industry placements.

Through the employer support fund, you can claim for legitimate costs you have incurred when providing an industry placement between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024.

Eligibility

You can only access the funding where you’re providing an industry placement for a student on a T Level programme. The placement must start between 1 April 2023 and 31 March 2024.

All employers are eligible to receive payments for legitimate costs they incur when offering placement hours as part of an industry placement. This includes hosting an industry placement:

• as part of a supply chain
• as a small team project with a number of students
• where the student is spending part of their placement in a skills hub or training centre
• for only the 35 work-taster hours
• where more than one employer is providing the industry placement hours

It is down to providers to decide what employers’ costs they will reimburse.

You can access funding through the employer support fund, regardless of any funding you may have claimed under previous schemes. However, the funding you receive as part of the employer support fund must not be for costs that have also have been covered by any other government funding. This includes T Level revenue funding or via other programmes such as apprenticeships.

Organisations that are not eligible to claim

All employers are eligible to claim for legitimate costs, except government departments and arm’s length bodies.

Schools, local authorities and NHS trusts are eligible to claim for legitimate costs.

Discuss with your provider if they say you’re not eligible for a payment. More information about the eligibility criteria for the fund is available in the funding rules.

What the fund covers

You can use the employer support fund to fund legitimate costs you incur when hosting a T Level industry placement. This could include:

• administrative costs, such as setting up:
  • processes and procedures
  • organisational systems
  • renting a workspace for the placement
• training costs, such as training existing staff to develop their knowledge
• tangible costs, such as:
  • equipment
  • insurance
  • security passes
  • mandatory training
  • software licensing
  • materials and supplies directly related to the industry placement
  • transport for students
  • additional training for the student

You can host as many students as you’d like to offer placements to. However, you cannot claim for legitimate costs that exceed £25,000 in total.

Additional training

The employer support fund can cover costs for extra training if:

• the student needs the training to get value from the placement
• staff members need the training to make sure the placement is high quality

You need to organise the training. You’ll get the payment for the cost of the training. Providers cannot make payments directly to any third party organisation that may be delivering the training.

Existing employees undertaking their T Level placement with you

If you have an existing employee doing their T Level industry placement with you, you can claim for legitimate costs.

You must incur these costs while your employee is carrying out their industry placement hours. You cannot claim for costs incurred for their normal duties as part of their contracted employed hours.

Submit a claim

To submit a claim, fill in an employer declaration form. As part of this form, you’ll need to provide a breakdown of the specific costs you incurred. These must be directly related to providing an industry placement.

You do not have to provide receipts with the form. We recommend that you keep any receipts or proof of purchases. We may ask you to provide more information on the costs as part of our quality assurance process.

You need to sign the employer declaration form and give it to your provider. Signing the declaration form, confirms that:

• the costs are true
• all costs you’re claiming for meet the requirements of the funding rules
• you have complied with conditions on how you can spend it

Payments

There is no limit on the amount you can claim for per student. However, you can only claim up to a maximum total of £25,000.

Your provider will make the payments. If they’re paying you by BACS, you’ll need to give them your bank details. If a BACS payment is not suitable, discuss this with your provider.

You should discuss the timing of the payment with your provider. In most cases, we expect them to make the payment once a placement has started. If you cannot start a placement until you get the funding, for example, to buy equipment for the placement, the provider may pay you earlier.

You should get advice on any tax implications for your organisation before receiving the funding.

Placement ends unexpectedly

If a placement ends unexpectedly, we do not expect employers to automatically pay funding back.

Discuss the circumstances that have caused the placement to come to an end with the provider and agree the most appropriate action to take.

If you want to refund the money back to the provider, you can. The provider can then use this money to support more industry placements in the 2023 to 2024 financial year.

Contact us

If you have any questions about the employer support fund, speak to your provider. If they’re not able to answer your question, email Employer.SUPPORTFUND@education.gov.uk.