“Uncertainty poses risk to business. So, the sooner we get details on the new apprenticeship levy, the faster we can do the analysis and inform our industry.
“Hospitality is one of the UK’s greatest routes to meaningful careers for skilled and unskilled entrants alike. Apprenticeships play a big role in this respect, offering the employer and the apprentice a structured training and development programme. As many of the new career starts in our industry are spread across the entire country and are in small businesses, we’d like the government to give greater consideration to SMEs and their ease of ‘access to apprenticeships’. In our industry, over 80% of operators are small businesses. Arguably, they stand to gain the greatest returns on apprenticeships. The BHA will continue to press government to facilitate SME participation.”