Church of England clergy could be trained with state money raised by the government's new apprenticeship levy.
The Church of England has said it is in talks with the business department about how it could gain access to the fund after second Church estates commissioner Caroline Spelman told MPs the Church "would very much like to see the levy being used to train more ordinands".
Spelman added: "I hope the government will support the Church's quest to use some of the moneys from the apprenticeship levy to meet its shortfall of approximately 40,000 ordinands."
The Church aims to increase the number of ordinations by 50 per cent by 2020 and will use some of its £6.1 billion fund to do so.
However the Church has also expressed an interest in using the levy announced by the Chancellor in his 2015 autumn statement. The new scheme will be imposed in April 2017 and forces companies with a wage bill of more than £3 million to pay a 0.5 per cent charge.
The Chancellor said the scheme will mean big businesses will help shoulder the burden of training workers and will raise £3bn a year for three million new apprenticeships.
The Church of England has said it will also have to pay the levy. A spokesman told TES: "The Church of England pays stipends to 8,000 clergy and others through a central payroll system for simplicity and efficiency, so will have to pay the apprenticeship levy. At the same time, the Church is heavily committed to training, with hundreds if not thousands of future clergy, youth workers and others in training in any year.
"The Church of England is, therefore, discussing – internally and with BIS [Department for Business, Innovation and Skills] – how we can work with the apprenticeship levy to maintain those high levels of professional development. Those talks are at a very early stage."
A spokesperson for the department said no group had made a formal bid for a clergy apprenticeship but it would be happy to speak with the Church of England.
The spokesperson added: "Through roundtables, meetings, events and webinars we continue to engage with thousands of employers about the levy. We welcome expressions of interest in developing new apprenticeship standards at any time."
