The Skilled Worker Visa Route

ACCESSING WORKERS THE SKILLED WORKER VISA ROUTE

As labour shortages continue, many UK employers have taken a closer look at the Skilled Worker visa route. At the time of writing around 48,000 UK companies are Skilled Worker sponsors and so may recruit overseas workers into defined Skilled Worker visa roles, which include a number of jobs in food and agriculture. The employer must hold the Sponsor Licence, employ the worker, agree and pay the salary and decide all the duties/functions/outcomes/ outputs of the job. Sponsor employers may recruit unlimited numbers of workers from anywhere in the world, as long as they meet the requirements of the route and are able to demonstrate that the roles are genuine and credible. Recruitment businesses are not able to hold a Sponsor Licence to recruit and supply a labour only service. However, increasing numbers of UK based GLAA licensed labour providers are now providing a ‘Recruitment Service’ where they are contracted to source and recruit the workers, working with and applying due diligence to overseas based GLAA licensed recruitment businesses. The ALP Skilled Worker Recruitment Cost Calculator allows members to input details of their requirements for Skilled Workers, and get an indicative cost of recruitment, including all the costs of sponsorship. Supplementing our comprehensive guidance, and webinars on the subject, ALP convened the Skilled Worker Visa Industry Working Group, bringing together employers and labour providers to create and share good practice, experience, issues and learning, collate questions and raise collectively with the Home Office, GLAA and others, and use evidence and experience

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