The government is changing the law to allow more redundant apprentices to complete their course.

A Statutory Instrument (SI) has today been laid in parliament that will allow the Education and Skills Funding Agency to continue to fund apprentices to complete their training if they are at least 75 per cent of their way through their programme at the point of redundancy.

Currently the ESFA continues to fund apprentices to complete if they are made redundant within six months of their final day of training.

The SI will need to be debated in both the House of Commons and House of Lords before it can become law.

Once the law has come in to force it will apply to apprentices made redundant from that day onwards – it will not apply retrospectively. FE Week has asked the ESFA when it expects the debates to be held.

Apprenticeships and skills minister Gillian Keegan said: “Covid-19 has had a big impact on the economy, and we know that some apprentices have lost their jobs or are facing redundancy as a result.

“Our redundancy support service is making sure apprentices can get the help they need.

“We are going even further by changing the law so more apprentices who have been made redundant can complete their programmes. We want to make sure that every apprentice has the training and skills they have gained recognised so that they can continue on their track and build their career.”

The “redundancy support service” is new online and telephone support for apprentices who have lost their jobs during Covid-19 outbreak.

It was launched in July alongside another new service that allows employers to share their vacancies with redundant apprentices.

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5 Comments

  1. Mmmmn, wonder what the definition of ‘75% through their programme’ will be:
    start date to planned end?
    75% of content (for those who front load?)
    75% of funding value?

    (or D, all of the above)

  2. Allowing the Education and Skills Funding Agency to continue to fund apprentices to complete their training if they are at least 75 per cent of their way through their programme at the point of redundancy will only be beneficial if the minimum six months is maintained for apprenticeships of under two years, and if the definition of redundancy is extended to include “laid off”, “let go” or otherwise lost their job through no fault of their own (for example their employer has gone out of business).

  3. How would this work with apprenticeships that have occupational competency whereby an employer has to sign to say they are also competent? How would this work for apprenticeships such as plumbing and heating (now a level 3 4 years standard) and electrical installation?

    It cannot be a one size fits all scenario.