The mechanics of an apprenticeship put a lot of employers off, mostly because they are explained badly. Here is the whole thing, in the order it happens.
How apprenticeships work for employers
Overview
Questions
The shape of it
Every apprenticeship follows a national standard: a published description of what somebody in that role must know and be able to do. You are not designing a training programme — you are picking the standard that matches the job, and the rest follows from that.
You can hire someone new or put an existing employee onto a standard. Both are common. An existing employee has to be learning genuinely new skills for it to qualify, which rules out using it to certify what somebody already does.
Twenty per cent of contracted hours are spent learning rather than producing. That is the part employers ask about most, so to be plain about it: it does not have to be one day a week, it can be delivered in blocks, on site, or online, and time spent learning new skills while doing the job can count if it is planned and recorded.
Throughout the apprenticeship there are progress reviews involving the apprentice, us, and you. These are short and they exist to catch problems early, while there is still time to do something about them.
At the end, an independent assessor — not us, and not you — confirms the apprentice meets the standard. That independence is what makes the qualification worth something to the next employer, and it is why we cannot simply pass our own learners.
What the employer has to provide
- A contract of employment for the duration, at or above the legal minimum wage for apprentices.
- A role with enough breadth for the apprentice to meet every part of the standard.
- The released hours, and a named person who supports them.
- A signed apprenticeship agreement and commitment statement, both of which we prepare.
How long it takes
Apprenticeships have a minimum duration set nationally, and most IT standards run to somewhere between a year and two years plus the end-point assessment. Prior experience can shorten it, and we will assess that honestly at the start rather than stretching a programme out to fill the funding.
What usually goes wrong
In our experience the two things that derail an apprenticeship are a role too narrow to cover the standard, and the released hours quietly disappearing when the business gets busy. Both are avoidable, and both are much easier to fix in the first month than in the tenth. We raise them at the review rather than at the end.
Ready when you are
Twenty minutes, free, no pressure. You will leave knowing exactly what your next step is.
- 1Tell us your goal
A first role, a promotion, or a skills gap in your team.
- 2We map the route
Twenty minutes with an advisor — apprenticeship, certification or bespoke training.
- 3You start
Middlesbrough, on-site at your workplace anywhere in the UK, or live online.
Ready when you are
Twenty minutes, free, no pressure. You will leave knowing exactly what your next step is.