This resource emphasises those areas where apprenticeship courses must be designed and delivered to support compliance with the apprenticeship funding rules. A major part of this is ensuring the apprentice is supported by the provider (SHU) and also the employer.

This resource does not attempt to provide advice on systems and process compliance outside of academic course design and delivery.

There is an extensive collection of documents that represent the Government’s funding rules

For further advice on whether your course complies with these rules, or how to make your course suitable as an apprenticeship please make good use of this resource and contact The Directorate of Education and Employer Partnerships (DEEP)

The fundamentals of compliance are ensuring there is a three-way commitment statement  in place at the outset and then supporting the apprenticeship throughout the course and into the End Point Assessment (EPA). When an apprentice “takes” the end point assessment then final funding is released to the provider.

The course design and delivery must have full regard to the content of the specific Apprenticeship Standard and the EPA for that standard. The WBL Framework Panel will work with apprenticeship course teams to improve practice and meet a baseline for compliance.

The Compliance Checklist provides a good starting point from which to design a course and develop a course specific operating guide. Another quick way to establish the operating and compliance requirements of an apprenticeship (that relate to curriculum design) can be reviewed in the recent publication from the Institute for Apprenticeships.

Attendance registers should be systematically taken for Apprentices and attendance patterns to feed into the three-way review process.

Course Teams including Professional support are responsible for taking and maintaining registers and should be capable of supplying evidence to DEEP to support the University through audit by the ESFA and in some cases by OFSTED. Failure to evidence attendance can result in loss and claw back of funding and will affect our status as a leading provider of degree apprenticeships. This is a serious requirement.

Quality Assurance
The Quality Assurance roles for Apprenticeships are set out here by the DfE. If you are designing or delivering a Higher Apprenticeship that is not a Degree Apprenticeship then the course team should work with DEEP, AQS and support staff to ensure the quality assurance requirements are understood and the course team is ready to meet the relevant compliance regime. Further information is available from the Office for Students

This short video highlights the overall impact of the Education & Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) funding rules, specifically explaining the role of the commitment statement. Sam Moorwood explains how the course must support the apprentice to achieve the milestones set out in the three-way commitment statement by the time the apprentice reaches the EPA.

Careful consideration during the design stage will pay dividends during delivery. Contact the DEEP team for more information on the Operations Task Group.