Corporate Vision May 2017

CORPORATE VISION / May 2017 47 The Apprenticeship Levy - a Challenge or an Opportunity? Company: ABM UK Name: Andy Donnell, group managing director Email: [email protected] Web Address: www.abm.co.uk Telephone: +44 (0) 207 089 6600 g • By increase the quality of apprenticeships, the government hopes to make them a viable alternative to university. • Employers with an annual wage bill in excess of £3 million will be liable to pay 0.5% of their pay bill into the Apprenticeship Levy fund. • These employers will then be able to access funding through a digital apprenticeship service account to pay approved training providers. • The Levy will apply to businesses across all sectors, both public and private. • Approximately 22,000 UK businesses will be affected. • Importantly, the Apprenticeship Levy isn’t just for the benefit of new apprentices; training is also available to existing staff to help them upskill. • The Apprenticeship Levy will be aiming to generate £3 billion per year. • The ambition of the Apprenticeship Levy is to train three million apprentices by 2020. • The Apprenticeship Levy officially comes into force on Thursday 6 April 2017. • Liable companies will make their first payments to HMRC on Friday 19 May 2017. Andy Donnell’s profile: • Donnell was born in Townhill Park, which is a suburb of Southampton, Hampshire. • He was educated at Townhill Infant and Middle Schools, and Bitterne Comprehensive. • Andy began his career as an apprentice electrician at RF Webb and Son in Shirley, Hampshire, and stayed with the company until he was 26 years old. • After working on building sites for several years, he took a job with Farnborough- based facilities management company, Sulzer Infra, as a maintenance engineer. • Andy became a supervisor at Sulzer Infra, which was followed by a rapid rise up the management ladder. He stayed on the technical side, but decided to broaden his knowledge and opted to do a two-year course at the Chartered Management Institute in Corby, Northamptonshire. • Andy was invited to become a partner with Westway Services in 2007 by its founder, Carl Brooks. He then rose through the ranks in roles covering operations and account management. • During his time at Westway, Donnell opened a dedicated training centre in Greenford, Middlesex, and was responsible for implementing procedures for lone workers, whereby an alert is sent to the 24/7 helpdesk when technicians start a job on their own, for example, on a rooftop. If that alert isn’t refreshed, someone on the site will check that they’re ok. • Donnell led Westway through management buyouts in 2009 and 2014, the latter to US-owned ABM. • Away from the facilities management world, Donnell volunteers with the Samaritans, which he has done since 2012.