Discover how an apprenticeship works in practice, including how to choose an apprentice, who provides the training and how apprentices are assessed.
You may wish to offer apprenticeships to existing staff where you will have a good idea of their motivation and potential or alternatively you may choose to employ new apprentices. If you need any help in recruiting suitable apprentices or choosing suitable existing staff, please contact us and we can put you in touch with an appropriate learning provider.
If you have existing training within your company, you may be able to manage the programme in-house, using your own supervisors and managers. We can work with you to identify the skills gaps in your business and help you to find the best training solution.
Alternatively, we can put you in touch with a suitable learning provider who can help you with the recruitment and training process. We can also connect you with Apprenticeship Training Agencies (ATAs). These are learning providers that have been set up especially to help businesses that may not have the resources or experience to effectively run their own apprenticeship scheme. The ATA can help find the right apprentice, employ them on your behalf and provide supervision throughout the training period, reducing the risk involved with hiring a new employee. You pay the ATA a fee for their services and only transfer the apprentice to your own payroll when you are satisfied that they are right for your company.
We would help you to review your existing training and identify any knowledge or skill gaps that would be necessary to fulfil the apprenticeship requirement. Then we would guide you on how best to fill them, with more internal training or through external support. It’s all about fitting the apprenticeship to your business, not the other way around.
All apprentices need to be externally assessed on completion of their on-programme learning. An apprentice has to work at least one year to be considered ready for end-point assessment (EPA). EPA tests the knowledge, skills and behaviours that an apprentice has gained during their training.
EPA is administered by an occupationally-competent, trained and qualified (where relevant) assessor from an independent end-point assessment organisation (EPAO). The asessor will conduct the EPA in line with each standard and review and submit their evaluation with a grade.
