Employers are to be offered £3,700 for every apprentice that they bring back from furlough and retain until they have completed their apprenticeship.

Economy Minister Diane Dodds also secured an additional £17.2million funding from the Executive to help boost the local apprenticeship system as it battles the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. This has been supplemented with additional Department funds.

She said: "I have allocated a total of £14.3million to fund an Apprenticeship Return, Retain and Result initiative. I want to encourage the return to work, retention and qualification of up to 4,500 furloughed apprentices in both the ApprenticeshipsNI and Higher Level Apprenticeship programmes."

The scheme will begin on 01 November 2020, when the UK wide Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme ends. It offers up to £3,700 of support, per apprentice, to employers who return an apprentice from furlough and retain them until they have completed their apprenticeship.

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Support will take the form of a £500 return payment followed by up to £2,000 for an employer who retains their apprentice for four months following their return from furlough. A final result payment of £1,200 will be made when the apprentice completes their qualification.

The Minister has also allocated a total of £12.5million to fund an Apprenticeship Recruitment Incentive initiative to encourage and support employers to create apprenticeship opportunities for both new apprentices and apprentices who have been made redundant. This scheme offers support of £3,000, to employers, for each new apprenticeship opportunity created between 1 April 2020 and 31 March 2021.

Sinn Féin MLA Caoimhe Archibald welcomed the announcement.

She said: "It is important to ensure there continues to be training and reskilling opportunities for both young people and those who have been made redundant.

"I met with officials from the Department of the Economy (DfE) yesterday to discuss the details and to press the need for certainty around the scheme and I was told an announcement was imminent.

"The Department needs to provide information to employers as soon as possible on how they can apply for the scheme."