David Lockhart-Hawkins is SDN’s Strategic Associate for funding and compliance, and lead consultant at Lockhart Hawkins. Here, David tackles an important change in the apprenticeship funding rules that every provider needs to consider this year. David has led hundreds of providers of all shapes and sizes to implement efficient and effective compliant systems as well as consult for several of the leading software suppliers in the industry. His solutions blend quality with compliance and really understands the provider experience.
This academic year we’ve seen significant development in the rules and application for off the job training within apprenticeships. It is a central component of compliance and I would argue it is the pivotal component.
So, what’s changed?
“Ever since May 2017, rules required an apprentice to train for a minimum of 20% of their own working hours; this meant that an apprentice who worked longer hours had a higher volume of off-the-job training required for the same duration of programme as someone working fewer hours, even though they would have the same learning objectives. This meant a higher threshold for eligibility because if the need of learning was less than 20% across a duration of at least 12 months they were ineligible for funding. On a practical training period of 12 months the threshold, if you worked 30 hours, was 278.4 hours and 348 if you worked 37.5 hours a week across the same period. It is / was illogical unless you could shorten the practical period of the higher hours worker but you could never breach the baseline of 12 months.
From 1 August 2022 the off-the-job training policy changed for new starts.
The minimum volume of hours required in a programme is no longer variable for those working more than 30 hours a week; instead, it has a consistent figure for anyone working 30 hours a week or more. This is 6 hours per week excluding those weeks of statutory leave, so that’s 5.35 hours if you take statutory leave into account. You can still deliver this flexibly (i.e. programme has to average the minimum but can be condensed, front loaded, back loaded or in blocks as long as you have something each month).
It is important to understand there is no change to the principle that if you require more off-the-job training in your programme (for example multiple days of study, assignment work, or simply put a general greater quantity of learning activities) then the minimum would be a minimum for a faster learner but all off the job activity would still need to be in paid time so your apprenticeship agreement, ILR and training plan would identify the higher number required for the apprentice.
The ‘6 hour rule’ as I call it, was one of several in this year’s guidance that continues the path we have been walking for several years, one of basing your compliance and quality of programme on a simple foundation of having a clear curriculum plan: a clear awareness of what is required to be achieved and how long it would usually take to get there.”
What does this mean in practice?
“The funding rules and off the job guidance add that planned activities of practical training, shadowing, mentoring, industry visits, competitions can only be included if they have been agreed and documented within the agreed training plan. Previously there was no clarification that the activity had to be planned, though you could say it was implied. If an apprentice documented greater volumes of shadowing for example in their off the job record and it wasn’t clearly new learning well it isn’t going to count as off the job training unless it was agreed in the plan.
So the direction of travel is about being clear on the hours of your programme and the activities driving those hours – it is this that accounts for the off-the-job training that should be agreed and must (if you wish to use apprenticeship funding) take place in paid time.
We’ve worked with hundreds of apprenticeship providers in recent years, and there are still some providers putting a finger in the air when it comes to the quantity of learning in their programmes and saying “well its about 20% isn’t it”. Activities have to be planned to count so you can clearly see that it’s the design of your programme. The chapters / modules you design and the method of delivery of those modules (events, quantity and time expectation) needs to be clear.
The solution here is really one of understanding the learning objectives that need to be met, and the time it takes to learn them – the design of your programme and the impact of change of circumstance upon it. Where is the apprentice in the journey? Where should they be? Can we quantify that?
If you’ve not completed a chapter / module of the programme that should have been achieved at a particular point, and that chapter takes 40 hours, you are behind in your planned off-the-job training. It is unlikely you’d be able to fit the catch-up of that into a working week because you’re going to need a lot of paid time to do that learning. The reality is additional week(s) will likely be necessary, resulting in material changes to the programme’s expected planned end of practical period and expected end date. These will need to be agreed through an updated training plan but that’s not simply a compliance need, that’s a qualitative need. How long will we take? How long is needed? Lets set expectations and then all stakeholders (employer, apprentice, ESFA included are going to be happier.
The solution of a clear planned curriculum of chapters / modules is really the only approach that makes sense. If you have robust initial assessment that translates the KSBs into the need of the curriculum (i.e you identify the chapters needed and not needed), then you can confidently plan the programme and any subsequent variations are more easily planned. Module 1 is not achieved on time? Well does it mean the overall programme needs extending? If more off-the-job isn’t given in existing work hours to complete the module, then absolutely it does!”
What can we do to prepare?
“Well for starters these five things will help:
- Review the design of your curriculum and ensure you have a clear programme plan for the volume of delivery required for occupational competence in the standard. This will be the same volume of hours for any individual that does not have prior learning.
- Ensure the baseline of the programme is an average of at least 5.35 hours a week after statutory leave (unless working less than 30 hours a week in which case the distribution of hours would be proportionate to the programme extension you’d apply).
- Ensure the design of programmes in your learning management platform mirrors your programme.
- You will want a data field of projected planned end date and projected completion date to allow for planning and monitoring of the real-world journey of an apprentice. This would be prominent in operational reporting and a key feature of progress reviews. You will need processes to ensure these dates are monitored and result in re-agreement of the training plan and (potentially, if the expected end date is to be exceeded) the apprenticeship agreement too. You may want to consider how much of the above is led by trainers/tutors and whether it could be a back-office process.
- You will need to train staff to understand how to replan programmes and have policies in place that explains how and when.
This is just one of several areas that may require changes in your policy, your programme design, your form design and administrative processes. Managing that change is more complex than just being told the rule has changed.
Other solutions can of course work. But having good curriculum is now not just the necessary solution for quality, it’s now the firm foundation of compliance.”
Planning and evidencing ‘off-the-job’ training – compliance and quality fundamentals
On the 1st March, David will host a webinar where we’ll walk you through the role and impact of off-the-job training at each stage of your delivery process, the methods you can use to plan and evidence off-the-job training and how to avoid common errors and pitfalls.
The session will be practical and action-focused, drawing on the latest best practice from our work with over 1,000 apprenticeship providers.
You’ll come away with:
- A clear understanding of the core rules relating to off-the-job training at every stage of your delivery process
- A greater awareness of the common errors and pitfalls to avoid
- Practical methods you can use to plan, evidence and report off-the-job training
- Actions you can take across compliance, curriculum and quality teams to improve your approach to off-the-job training
Find out more about this webinar and register here
The content in this blog was accurate as of 20/02/2023 and subsequent funding rule changes will likely occur.