Learning and Development - Keystone Knowledge

Keystone Skills Partnership

Turn your levy from lost funds to lasting impact

We help Multi-Academy Trusts and schools turn their levy from an overlooked compliance pot into a strategic engine for workforce development.

With 0.5% of your payroll over £3m going into the levy pot and unspent levy disappearing back into the treasury, it's time to get value for money from your compulsory Growth and Skills levy.

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How can Keystone help me spend my levy and upskill my team?

At Keystone, we know how important upskilling your people is, and how hard it is to plan and execute your levy spend when there are so many other things to do.

That’s why our model is simple: we embed a dedicated learning and development manager into your trust team to design, deliver and manage the whole levy strategy for you.

This isn't a generic outsourced service; it's a partnership built around your Multi-Academy Trust's people, priorities and plans for growth.

The Keystone Skills Partnership includes:

Strategic levy management

Aimed at strengthening your team and spending your skills and growth levy.

A learning and development manager

With unlimited access when you need them.

Full workforce mapping

To align every role with levy-eligible training programmes.

Training sourcing

End-to-end training provider sourcing, contracting, onboarding, and quality assurance.

Young male teacher leads a staff meeting with other teachers

Did you know the apprenticeship levy has changed?

Responsibility for apprenticeships and the Apprenticeship Levy is moving from the Department for Education to the Department for Work and Pensions, marking a clear pivot in government policy. The message is simple: skills, employability and workforce development are now national priorities.

And they should be yours too.

The newly named Growth and Skills Levy has changed so that...

Up to 50% of levy funds can now be used on non-apprenticeship training (such as Skills Bootcamps, modular technical qualifications, and sector-specific skills programmes).
The minimum duration of apprenticeships is being cut from 12 to 8 months from August 2025, making them faster and easier to align with trust priorities.

Entry requirements are being relaxed for over-19 learners, removing barriers like mandatory Level 2 English and maths.
Employers will be given greater control over which training counts as levy-eligible, reducing admin friction and making it easier to get value from every pound.

These changes mark a shift in how Multi-Academy Trusts can build workforce capacity, but it also raises a big challenge: how do you use this flexibility strategically rather than reactively?

That's where the Keystone Skills Partnership comes in.