Apply for the Flexible Workforce Development Fund

If you’re an employer paying the apprenticeship levy in Scotland, you could apply for up to £15,000 towards the cost of training your workforce.

The Scottish Government’s Flexible Workforce Development Fund (FWDF) is available to employers across the private, public and third sectors subject to the UK Government’s Apprenticeship Levy.

What you need to know about the Flexible Workforce Development Fund:

• The FWDF is available to all levy paying employers in Scotland across the private, public and third sectors
• Each Levy-paying employer can access up to a maximum of £15,000 in 2018/19
• The fund can be used to contribute towards training at a higher cost
• Employers can submit only one application to the fund within the application period
• In year two of the Fund, Levy-paying employers who are eligible for the FWDF will have the ability to bring benefit to their supply chain specifically with the purpose of bringing greater benefit to the Levy-payer through investing in the development of their supply chain in two ways:
  
  (a) Levy-payers can relinquish their access to the FWDF and nominate up to two of their supply chain companies to receive all or part of their allocation, or
  (b) Levy-payers can include supply chain company staff in training they have identified as a collective priority.
  
  
• The fund is in addition to apprenticeship support which all employers are eligible to access in Scotland. Read all about Foundation, Modern and Graduate Apprenticeship programmes
• The fund will not support qualifications or training that a company should provide by law
• Scottish Government announced the fund in their response to the UK Government Apprenticeship Levy where they set out how they will use the £230m of levy funding to support skills, training and employment in Scotland during 2018/19

How to apply

The deadline for Levy-paying employers to make an application is the end of July 2019.

The Flexible Workforce Development Fund (FWDF) is administered by the Scottish Funding Council on behalf of the Scottish Government.