DfE sets minimum off-the-job hours for each apprenticeship standard

Policy changed to 'increase flexibility in the delivery of OTJ'

Policy changed to 'increase flexibility in the delivery of OTJ'

15 May 2025, 17:32

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The Department for Education has introduced minimum off-the-job training (OTJ) hours for each apprenticeship standard for the first time.

Funding rules for 2025-26, published this afternoon, stated that OTJ hours-by-standard were necessary due to the shortening of the minimum apprenticeship duration from 12 to eight months, as well as “the introduction of new products and feedback from the sector”.

Until now, training providers have had to calculate how much OTJ training each apprentice requires depending on the length of their apprenticeship – but must be a minimum of 20 per cent of their working hours.

A list (click here to download) detailing new minimum hours for all 713 existing apprenticeship standards has now been released. They will apply to new starts from August. 

The DfE said: “We are removing the delivery link between OTJ training and time on programme. This means that providers will be free to deliver the OTJT hours over whatever timeframe they choose (subject to meeting the minimum duration requirement). If the duration on programme increases or decreases, there will no longer be an impact on the minimum OTJT requirement.”

The minimum hours range from 1,531 for the level 7 chartered legal executive litigator and advocate apprenticeship, which has a typical duration of five and a half years, to 278 hours for 12-month apprenticeships like the level 2 urban driver.

The DfE said it considered a “range of information when setting the figure including current durations, both the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) typical duration and actual time on programme, and the volume of planned and actual hours being reported in the individualised learner record by providers”.

Rules added that 2025-26 is a “transition year in which we will continue to collect delivery information and work with partners to assess if the volumes are reflective of actual delivery”.

The published minimum hours figure can only be reduced if there is evidence of relevant prior learning from the apprentice’s initial assessment. 

The “resulting programme”, with a corresponding price reduction, “must not fall below 187 hours of evidenced delivery or eight months in actual duration”, DfE said. 

Funds are at risk of recovery if providers do not comply with the new minimum hours policy. 

“These changes will reduce bureaucracy around the OTJT calculation and provide increased flexibility in the delivery of off-the-job training,” DfE said.

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