Forestry Commission Crown copyright
Traditional apprenticeships can feel paperwork-heavy and hard to manage, especially for small or seasonal forestry businesses. This Forestry Commission-funded project is designed to remove those barriers.
Supplytrain recruits and employs a Forest Craftsperson apprentice on your behalf. We manage payroll and HR, liaise with the college, and provide a £1,000 travel and accommodation bursary for training blocks. Apprentices can also be shared across employers, so you’re not tied to a full two-year commitment if your workflow doesn’t allow it.
You pay the apprentice’s wages and provide the work. We handle the rest, at no additional cost.
Interested in learning more? Click below to book a 20 minute call to see if this flexible approach might work for you.
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A flexible approach to apprenticeships that actually works for forestry employers
Programme overview.
No Employment risk
– Supplytrain CIC is the employer, you ‘host’ the apprentice
No two year commitment
– Apprentices can be shared across employers
No HR, Payroll or heavy admin load
– Supplytrain runs the payroll and deals with HR and most college admin
£14,000 worth of training at no cost
– This apprenticeship includes the mandatory forestry ‘tickets’ most landowners and insurers require – including chainsaw, pesticide and forestry first aid qualifications
Travel and accomodation bursary
– An allocation of up to £1,000, per apprentice, is also available to help with travel and accommodation costs when apprentices attend training with a registered college.
How much will it cost?
An hourly wage is set for the apprentice
Apprentices can be any age. We’ll help you set an appropriate hourly wage. This could be from £8/hour in the first 12 months (Apprenticeship Minimum Wage), but the more you can afford, the more likely you’ll attract and retain great candidates.
You give the apprentice 30+ hours/week of work
You can offer 30 or more hours a week, and it can flex week to week. You’ll only be billed for the hours the apprentice works. 30/hours @ £8/hour could be as little as £240/week.
You must pay the apprentice whilst training
Your investment is paying the apprentice when they are training. It’s likely they will receive 4 weeks worth of training over a year at a specialist college – remember though, you’re not paying for their licences whilst they are away, and the training makes them better at the job.
No Employer NI contributions for under 25s!
Not many employers know, but there are no Employer National Insurance Contributions for apprentices under the age of 25. If you pay someone £25k a year, that is already a £3,000 Employer NI saving.
Apprentices aged 22+ will automatically be enrolled onto a pension scheme. Where apprentices are in the pension scheme, you will also incur a small additional cost which we can explore at an introduction call with you.
This is a low cost, supportive, way to test apprenticeships in your business.
Let us know your budget and expectations and we’ll let you know how many hours you could offer and what you’d get in return. You can make a decision from there – complete the form to book a short call.
The partners bringing this together
Supplytrain is a not-for-profit organisation whose mission is to create fairer routes into work. We do this by making it as easy as possible for businesses to offer life-changing opportunities to hard working young people and career changers – without the complexity or risk associated with government schemes.
On this project, we employ participants on your behalf, provide HR, safeguarding and payroll support, and check in regularly with both the line manager and apprentice to make sure everything is going to plan and pick up any actions.
The Forestry Commission is the government body responsible for protecting, expanding and sustaining England’s forests and woodlands, while supporting the people and businesses that work within them.
As part of the Forestry Sector Skills Plan 2025, the Forestry Commission is investing in new, practical approaches to skills development – particularly for small and medium-sized forestry businesses who play a vital role in the sector but often face barriers to taking on apprentices.
By funding Supplytrain to recruit, employ and support Forest Craftsperson apprentices, the Forestry Commission is helping employers access talent more easily, reduce administrative burden, and build a skilled, resilient and sustainable forestry workforce for the future.
We are a social enterprise that helps employers to create fairer routes into work.
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Call: 020 3855 6029
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