AN APPRENTICESHIP levy on businesses introduced by the government to encourage employers to take on trainees has backfired and is undermining apprentice training schemes, a new report warned today.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) and the Youth Futures Foundation report says the scheme gives employers an incentive to “rebadge” existing staff training as “apprenticeships” so they can claim money to pay for them.

They conducted a survey of more than 2,000 organisations about the levy and found “worrying unintended consequences,” including employers using existing training schemes to draw money.