Funds will be made available to any small or medium-sized employers (SMEs) or not-for-profit organisations seeking to recruit an ex-offender as an apprentice.

Recent research commissioned by the firm revealed that the Apprenticeship Levy gifting scheme could incentivise more UK businesses to offer employment opportunities to ex-offenders.

The findings, which were released to mark the launch of Sodexo’s Starting Fresh campaign, found that one in five (21%) of UK businesses would be more likely to hire an ex-offender if they could receive Apprenticeship Levy gifting funds to cover training costs.

Businesses in the hairdressing and beauty sector were most interested in receiving these funds to hire ex-offenders (24%), while with HR professionals this figure soared to 43% – perhaps reflecting their greater experience of apprenticeships and the Apprenticeship Levy scheme.

Sodexo, which runs seven UK prisons on behalf of the Ministry of Justice and Scottish Prison Service, launched Starting Fresh to encourage and provide guidance to businesses on proactively hiring ex-offenders.  

“When we initially polled businesses on their attitudes towards recruiting ex-offenders, we included the question about apprenticeship levy gifting as we were genuinely interested to see if this could be an influencing factor,” said Sue Davison, head of apprenticeships at Sodexo UK & Ireland. 

“Given the results of the survey, we decided to take employers at their word and provide a proportion of our levy gifting fund specifically to those who would offer apprenticeships to ex-offenders.”

As part of the campaign, the food services and facilities management company has created an online hub with resources for employers seeking to unlock the talent available. 

Another option that Sodexo is able to offer to employers interested in proactively recruiting ex-offenders is to hold a recruitment day in a prison.

Since 2019 it has gifted a portion of the Apprenticeship Levy it pays and in February this year passed the £2m milestone. 

Organisations that have already benefited from the company’s Apprenticeship Levy gifting have included London Ambulance Service, Aspire Training Solutions (UK) and McGinley.

Businesses interested in applying for the Apprentice Levy gifting can contact Sodexo by email at [email protected].

• Comment below on this story. Or let us know what you think by emailing us at [email protected] or tweet us to tell us your thoughts or share this story with a friend.