Societe Generale to use apprenticeship levy to support Charity partner CLIC Sargent

Under current rules, levy paying employers will be able transfer up to 10% of their apprenticeship levy allocation to companies in their supply chain. Happily, for us this includes our charity partners, CLIC Sargent, the UK's leading cancer charity supporting children, young people and their families from diagnosis onwards.

Launched in 2017, the UK government apprenticeship levy enables employers with an annual tax of over £3m to set aside capital from this pay bill to invest in training and development programmes for their staff. The intention of the initiative is to boost the skills-based economy in the UK with a solution that is both good for employees and good for employers. Having embraced the apprenticeship levy since its launch, Societe Generale currently has about 120 people on various programmes in the UK and that number is growing.

“At Societe Generale we have a strong belief in supporting our charity partners beyond fundraising, helping them to build their capacity and grow as an organisation. We are committed to ensuring that our apprenticeship levy is used to grow the skills of our own employees and delighted that we can extend this to our partners, maximising the impact our levy has,” said Ben Higgins, Head of HR for UK and Ireland.

Working with training partner Decoded, a portion of Societe Generale apprenticeship levy funds will be deployed to train CLIC Sargent employees in their data science programme to help the charity achieve its key objectives for 2020.

These include implementing new ways of working, seeking opportunities to sustainably increase their reach and impact by using new technologies and improving the charity’s ability to make evidenced based decisions.

Jennifer Harries, Associate Director of People Development at CLIC Sargent said: “It is brilliant that we are able to use these funds to help equip our staff with new skills that will give us greater insight, help us to spot trends and to ultimately make more good decisions informed by data. This will help us get the most out of every penny that is donated to improve the lives of children and young people who have been diagnosed with cancer."