As part of its tax initiative, Co-op is investing in over 600 apprenticeships for young children.
Co-op’s Levy Share service works with other employers who can use up to 50 per cent of their annual unspent apprenticeship levy funds to target apprenticeships for under-represented groups.
The retailer has pledged to raise £5 million for the early childhood fund over the next five years.
The fund is aimed at employers in the private, public, voluntary and community sectors who are committed to the welfare of children aged 0 to 5 years.
The investment will support the government’s commitment to create 3,000 nurseries and 100,000 new kindergarten places across England.
“Given the government’s commitment to create much-needed physical capacity in the early childhood education sector, it is great that through our levy initiative we can help attract more people to the sector and give them the opportunity to think about a career in the early childhood education sector and the right training,” said the cooperative’s managing director, Shirine Khoury-Haq.
The apprenticeships are being created in collaboration with the Royal Foundation’s Business Taskforce for Early Childhood.
Khoury-Haq said Co-op is also currently in discussions with other taskforce members to see how they can contribute to further funding.
In addition, the company hopes to attract investments from other companies that are not yet part of the task force and would like to support the levy system.
