More than £1.5m passed between businesses via ‘secret’ training fund
One takeaway from National Apprenticeships Week is that funding remains a major issue. Then we heard about 'secret' system channelling £100,000s into Gloucestershire to help overcome just that!
Dear readers,
Welcome to Monday’s edition of The Raikes Journal. Before you think we’ve uncovered some kind of illegal money laundering scheme in the county, we’ve not.
But it is a scheme that is allowing vast sums of money to be kept from the clutches of Government and diverted to county firms by some of our most savvy employers.
Word is spreading about it, but it’s spreading slowly. In a nation where we’ve just learned that employment prospects for young people have been particularly bleak of late, every little bit helps.
We have Alan Mulrooney, of Gloucestershire College, to thank for tipping us the wink on today’s lead.
And we’ll repeat what we said on Friday, that we are looking for new partners to help support The Raikes Journal. Not that the old ones are leaving, but this is the time of year when we need to build those commercial relationships for the year ahead.
Full Founding Partner status gets you quite a lot of editorial support, but there are other options.
If you want to come on board, please do let me know. The audience is growing; the number of subscribers is growing.
This is the only independent editorially led website and newsletter operation edited by a journalist in Gloucestershire. It’s not a marketing channel, a paid-for articles channel, a conduit for press releases or written by AI. We speak to real people and report what they tell us.
Your marketing on social media may reach a big number, but if you want anyone to know any more than just that I would argue someone has to write about you. The impact of a third party doing that can be massive.
I have a month to raise the necessary amount, so if you are interested in learning more please reach out to me via email andrew.merrell@raikesjournal.co.uk or telephone 07956 926061.
Very best regards,
Andrew Merrell (editor).
Charity of the week: Charity benefits from every sale by Gloucester housebuilder
As the final homes at its Whitminster development near completion, Newland Homes has marked the occasion by handing over a donation to Teckels Animal Sanctuaries.
For the Gloucester-headquartered housing business the gesture helps reinforce the lasting impact of its ‘Home for a Home’ partnership between itself and the charity.
The money will help it achieve its bid to rehome a rescue animal for every new, zero carbon homes it sells at Upton’s Garden. Just two homes out of the eight-home scheme remain.
Chelsea Rogers from Teckels Animal Sanctuaries commented: “When local organisations like Newland Homes step forward with genuine support, it has a huge impact on our work.”
Teckels Animal Sanctuaries rescues and rehomes hundreds of animals each year. Since 2003 it has provided a safe haven for an estimated 250 homeless cats and dogs annually.
Briefing notes…
🔥Sustainable heating specialists names new business development manager: With its sights on growth, Gloucestershire firm Hewer has signed a new business development manager with a track record for developing routes to market for new products. The Quedgeley-based firm started as a one-man band 60 years ago and has grown into a £20m-plus turnover business with 140-plus staff. More here in our PR Wire channel.
🏘️😠 Plan for 13,000 homes new homes in Gloucestershire slammed: Residents in the Forest of Dean have given their view on plans to make room for 5,500 homes near their village from a total 13,000 planned for the district - calling it “absolute madness”. Two settlements have been proposed - one off the A40 in Churcham of 2,000 homes and the other off the A417 in Redmarley of 3,500 dwellings. More here in our Other News channel.
Diary dates
Tuesday
☕ The Growth Hub in Stroud is staging a social brunch for start-ups networking event on Tuesday, 224 February, from 9.30am to 11am.
Wednesday
💻 Emma Provins, director of Skylight9, will be hosting a social media workshop for small business owners at The Growth Hub, Cheltenham, from 9.30am to 12.30pm. More here.
🎊 Tickets are selling fast for The Property Forum’s Inspiring Women event, due to take place at Clockwise, Cheltenham’s coworking and office space, at 9.30am. More here.
🚨 Gloucestershire College is due to stage a special Apprenticeship Open Evening from 5pm to 8pm at its Gloucester Campus in Llanthony Road. It’s free to attend. Many of Gloucestershire’s best employers, big and small, will be on hand to chat. More here.
Thursday
🏇🏽🍕 Willans LLP solicitors and Cheltenham Open Door, the Cheltenham-headquartered law firm’s nominated charity for the year, invite you to join them for an evening of fun, fundraising and friendly competition in the run-up to the Cheltenham Gold Cup. The entry fee, which all goes to the charity, puts you and a team in with a chance of winning one or more of six recorded races. Price includes two drinks and pizza. At The Bottle of Sauce, Cheltenham. More here.
Friday
☕ ‘The One’ Women’s Network at Circo Brasserie, Cheltenham, for solopreneurs and women in business who want to attract more of their dream clients. 10.30am to noon.
Future thinking… more diary dates
Willans LLP solicitors’ experienced property dispute lawyers are hosting a free, in-person seminar to provide an update on the Renters’ Rights Act on 18 March at 4pm. The Bill is described as “representing the most significant reform to the private rental sector in decades”. Significant changes include the abolition of “no-fault” evictions, the introduction of rolling tenancies, limits on rent increases, and the new Decent Homes Standard. Aimed at landlords and their agents. More here.
* The Raikes Journal is a community interest company. Everything you read by us is made possible by our incredible Founding Partners: QuoLux, Willans LLP, Gloucestershire College, Merrell People and Randall & Payne, our sponsors, our Founding Members and wonderful paying subscribers.
If you upgrade to become a paid subscriber you’ll be part of this CIC too. You’ll help make us sustainable, be able to see past the paywalls, comment on our stories, and know you’re making possible the county’s only editorially-led platform dedicated to delivering quality journalism for Gloucestershire about its businesses, charities, education and training sectors.
Sign up for just £2.30 a week - or £1.80 a week if two or more people sign up at once. Or go all in and become one of our Founding Partners or Founding Members!
More than £1.5m passed between businesses via ‘secret’ training fund
One takeaway from National Apprenticeships Week this month is that funding remains a major issue. Then we heard about a giant pot of cash corralled in Gloucestershire to help overcome just that!
A little-known scheme is keeping millions of pounds in Gloucestershire by helping businesses redistribute cash they might otherwise lose to Government direct to other companies to train apprentices.
Large organisations will already be only too aware that they pay into the Government Apprenticeship Levy, creating a pot of money that firm is able to reuse - but only for training purposes.
If those companies have no apprenticeship opportunities available and the money goes unspent within two years it is hoovered back up by Government out of everyone’s reach.
It’s a frustrating situation for the companies, who see it as a ‘lost’ opportunity to help train staff, and for those smaller firms who do not need to pay into the levy but have training needs and no capital to make them happen.
However, it seems there is a workaround.
Some of the county’s biggest businesses and organisations, at least those savvy enough to understand the small print of the apprenticeship levy, are passing those funds across to other companies free of charge - some specifically to try and keep that cash in the county.
Alan Mulrooney, one of a team at Gloucestershire College dedicated to helping support businesses with apprenticeships and training, explained that the scheme allows businesses and organisation to create what is called ‘a transfer pledge’ - and even name another company it wants to benefit.
“As long as your apprentice is under 25, the Government now covers the full cost of training that apprentice,” said Mulrooney, which means the Government funds it from the levy.
Non-levy paying employers pay five per cent of the training and assessment costs, with the government covering the remaining 95 per cent, up to the funding band maximum.
“But that five per cent can still be difficult to find - and it can be critical.
“Luckily there is this opportunity for larger levy paying companies to transfer their levy on to SMEs and one-man-bands so they can use it to train apprentices too,” said Mulrooney.
The scheme is there to try to benefit as many as possible, but primarily small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), large employers with unspent funds, and the wider economy.
It allows large employers (with a payroll over £3 million) to transfer up to 50 per cent of their unused levy funds to other businesses, charities, or public sector bodies to pay for 100 per cent of apprenticeship training and assessment costs.
Gloucestershire County Council is one such organisation that’s been choosing to transfer its unused funds only to employers in the county.
It’s so far transferred more than £1.5 million to county employers. Apprenticeships in health, adult social care, childcare, construction, engineering, education and, more recently, youth support services, have been made possible as a result.
Word has spread about what the council has been doing, and demand has grown significantly. Between April 2025 and January 2026 more than 200 applications for support were received. That is expected to reach around 250 by the end of March.
Cllr Colin Hay, deputy leader of Gloucestershire County Council and cabinet member for finance, assets and transformation, said: “This is a simple and effective way of keeping training money in Gloucestershire. Instead of unused funds being returned, they help local employers bring in new talent or develop the staff they already have.
“By helping people to develop their skills and build their careers here, we’re supporting local employers, strengthening our economy, and making Gloucestershire an even better place to live and work.”
According to Mulrooney the best way to find out about the scheme and what funding is there is to visit the Government’s website, here: Transferring your apprenticeship levy to another business.
According to the website: “It is your choice which businesses you transfer levy funds to. Any business can receive a transfer of levy funds, including businesses that pay the apprenticeship levy and those that do not.
“All businesses will need an apprenticeship service account to receive a transfer of levy funds. Businesses that pay the apprenticeship levy can choose to either send or receive a transfer of levy funds.”
It added: “Transferred funds can only be used to pay for apprenticeship training and assessment up to the funding band maximum.
“Transfers can only be used for a new apprentice start. This doesn’t mean the apprentice has to be a new employee. It means you cannot receive transfer funding for an employee who has already started their apprenticeship.
“The exception to this is when an apprentice changes employer. The apprentice can continue their apprenticeship with a new employer, funded by a transfer of levy funds.”
Want to find out more about apprenticeships in Gloucestershire, and speak to a team and other businesses that know about the scheme and just about everything else
Gloucestershire College is due to stage its Apprenticeship Open Evening on Wednesday 25 February 2026 from 5pm to 8pm at its Gloucester Campus in Llanthony Road. More here.