How employers are helping to tackle the charity digital skills gap

Charities increasingly need stronger digital, data and AI capability, but constrained budgets can make workforce development difficult to fund. Natalie Archbold, Partnerships Director at Baltic Apprenticeships, explores how employer levy transfer can help more organisations invest in the skills they need.

Digital capability is becoming increasingly important to how charities operate, reach their communities and make the best use of limited resources.

The Charity Digital Skills Report 2026 gives a clear indication of where the sector’s priorities now sit. Building the digital skills of staff, volunteers and leaders was identified as a priority by 59% of charities, rising to 72% among larger organisations. More than half also said improving how they collect, manage and analyse data is a priority.

AI is already part of that picture. The report found that 79% of charities are using AI in some way, yet capability remains one of the main barriers to further progress. More than half, 56%, identified limited skills and technical expertise as their biggest barrier to progressing with AI, while 45% cited a lack of training or support to upskill.

For organisations looking at how technology could improve services, decision-making or efficiency, having people with the confidence and skills to use it effectively is becoming increasingly important.

Funding the skills charities say they need

The appetite to develop those skills is clear. Finding the budget to do so can be much harder.

Squeezed organisational finances were identified as the biggest barrier to digital progress by 63% of charities. Training staff, volunteers, leaders and boards was also the sector’s biggest digital funding need, identified by 44% of both small and large charities.

That creates a difficult position for organisations that can see where greater capability would help but have limited room in their budgets for structured workforce development.

For employers elsewhere in the economy, there is a different skills-funding question.

Apprenticeship levy-paying organisations rightly look first at how their available funding can support their own workforce. That might mean addressing skills gaps, developing future leaders, supporting progression or building capability in areas such as digital, data and AI.

Even with deliberate workforce planning, however, not every employer is able to use all of the apprenticeship funding entering its account. Government figures published in June showed that in 2024/25, over half of active levy-paying employers spent no more than 25% of the funds entering their apprenticeship accounts during the year.

Levy transfer gives employers an opportunity to extend some of that skills investment beyond their own workforce by funding apprenticeship training in other organisations.

Used strategically, that can also form part of a wider social-impact approach. An employer can consider the communities, sectors or capabilities it wants to support and direct funding towards organisations where access to skills development can make a meaningful difference.

What we learned from one employer partnership

We saw the potential for this first-hand through our work with Yusen Logistics.

In November 2025, Baltic Apprenticeships and Yusen Logistics launched a £210,000 levy-transfer initiative to help charities, non-profits and NHS organisations access apprenticeship training.

The response was significantly greater than we had expected.

Organisations came forward from across the UK looking for ways to develop people already working within their teams. What stood out was the variety of needs behind those enquiries. For some, data capability was the priority. Others were looking at AI, digital processes, IT or wider technical skills.

It quickly became clear that the demand was greater than one employer partnership could meet.

That experience changed the scale of the conversation for us. Rather than simply looking at how one employer could transfer its levy, we started looking at what could happen if more employers were brought together around the same purpose.

Bringing more employers into the picture

That led to the launch of Fund Forward, which brings together levy-paying employers to support apprenticeship training in charities and community organisations across the UK.

The initiative launched with support from Acacium Group, North Yorkshire Council, Paragon Bank, Serco, Tunstall Healthcare and Yusen Logistics, with at least £534,733 pledged towards an ambition to unlock £1 million in apprenticeship funding.

The activity behind Fund Forward had already redirected £338,348 in levy funding to 16 third-sector organisations by launch, supporting 25 learners to enrol on apprenticeship programmes.

Those figures matter, but the level of demand behind them matters too.

Our experience since the initial Yusen Logistics partnership has consistently shown that there are charities ready to invest in their people when funding becomes accessible. Even with more than half a million pounds now pledged through Fund Forward, demand remains strong, and our current focus is on bringing more employers into the initiative so that more of the applications coming through can be supported.

For employers considering levy transfer, that means there is an opportunity to respond to a skills need that already exists.

Making levy transfer part of wider skills planning

Employers will quite rightly continue to put their own workforce needs first when planning how to use apprenticeship funding.

But where organisations know that some funding will not be deployed internally, levy transfer can be considered alongside wider people, skills and social-impact priorities rather than as an administrative decision at the end of the process.

That could mean supporting digital capability within a particular sector, investing in organisations operating within an employer’s local communities, or helping charities develop skills closely connected to the employer’s own areas of expertise.

The important part is having a clear purpose behind the transfer.

The charity sector provides a strong case for that approach because the need is increasingly well documented. Organisations are already adopting digital tools and AI, they are identifying workforce skills as a priority, and many say funding is preventing them from investing at the level they would like.

For employers with apprenticeship funding they cannot fully use internally, there is an opportunity to help close some of that gap.

Fund Forward is aiming to unlock £1 million in apprenticeship funding for charities and community organisations across the UK. To meet the level of demand we are already seeing, the next step is growing the network of employers willing to extend their skills investment beyond their own workforce.

Learn more about Fund Forward and becoming a Fund Partner: https://www.balticapprenticeships.com/fund-forward/