Asda has reported it wasted more than £7m of apprenticeship funding in 2024, due to “restrictive” limits on how it is spent.
The supermarket published its apprentices impact report today, which revealed 214 Asda colleagues completed an apprenticeship alongside their day-to-day role last year, after the retailer added 12 new programmes to take the total on offer to 80.
But despite adding new apprenticeships for positions such as dispensing optician (DO) Level 6 – the first time an apprenticeship for this professional role has ever been run in the optical profession – and an artificial intelligence (AI) data specialist, the supermarket said £7.7m went unused during the year due to restrictions on the type of apprenticeships and training posed by the government’s levy scheme.
The levy allows large employers to transfer up to 50% of their levy funds each year to other businesses to fund their apprenticeships, training and development.
Retailers including Tesco, M&S and Asda have called for an overhaul of the apprenticeship levy, calling the scheme “broken” and “restrictive”.
“We are proud to offer a wealth of apprenticeship programmes that not only develop the huge amount of talent within our business, but also support wider small and medium businesses through the apprenticeship levy transfer scheme,” said Asda chief people and corporate affairs officer Hayley Tatum.
“With vital funds still going unspent, we continue to back calls for reform of the levy transfer system so more businesses can benefit. A more flexible and simpler system is crucial to providing more opportunities for young people to develop and upskill themselves.”
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