Apprenticeship toolkit

Examples of practice

Only collect what you need

One university told us that their standardised enrolment process caused issues for apprentices. The enrolment screens are set up with a box that students must tick to say they will be liable for their fees. Apprentices are not liable to pay fees but they can’t get past this screen without ticking the box. This has led to numerous enquiries and concern amongst apprentices. Currently the workaround is to send an email acknowledging that the apprentice will not be charged a fee. This creates work and results in a sub optimal experience for the apprentice. ​

Packaged learning

A number of universities told us that their existing VLEs are not sufficiently flexible for use in apprenticeships because they are intrinsically linked to the undergraduate curriculum model. One system is built on an assumption that every piece of learning amounts to 30 credits, and every calendar year learning goes up a level, whereas many degree apprenticeships run over five or six years rather than three.

Another said the issue is that all learning is packaged in modules so there is an issue around how apprentices get access to resources that relate to the knowledge, skills and behaviours of the apprenticeship standard rather than a specific module of the degree.