Apprenticeship Facts

Home  Training  Apprenticeship Facts

The information below answers the key questions people typically have about Apprenticeships and Advanced Apprenticeships. If your question is not answered here please contact our Customer Service Team on 0845 330 8184 or send your query to us via our contact form.

Apprenticeships and Advanced Apprenticeships are a valuable and successful method of learning and achieving nationally-recognised qualifications. They combine the development of new skills, competencies, knowledge and experience. The frameworks for Apprenticeships and Advanced Apprenticeships are created by the Sector Skills Councils; this ensures that they are relevant and valuable to the sectors they represent.

• Our Apprenticeship and Advanced Apprenticeship programmes are for anyone aged between 16 – 65 who do not have a degree or equivalent qualification, are not in full-time education and are employed at least 16 hours a week.
• Our Apprenticeships and Advanced Apprenticeships are Government funded through the Skills Funding Agency, meaning that there is normally no cost to you or your employer if you fit the criteria above and work within certain geographic locations. See the funding page for further details.
• An Apprenticeship or Advanced Apprenticeship is normally made up of three elements: Key Skills, Technical Certificate(s) and a National Vocational Qualification (NVQ), each of which are separately certificated.

NVQ
NVQs are based on national occupational standards. These standards are statements of performance that describe what competent people in a particular occupation are capable of. They cover all the main aspects of an occupation, including current best practice, the ability to adapt to future requirements and the knowledge and understanding that underpin competent performance. In short, NVQs are work-related, competence-based qualifications reflecting the skills and knowledge needed to do a job effectively.

Key Skills
Key skills are a range of skills that are used to underpin success in education, employment, lifelong learning and personal development. There are 6 key skill qualifications which can be achieved at different levels depending on the qualification being taken; these are Communication, Application of Number, Information Technology, Working with Others, Improving Own Learning and Performance and Problem Solving.

Technical Certificate
Technical Certificates are vocationally related qualifications deliver the underpinning knowledge and understanding relevant to a learner’s chosen vocational area. The qualification complements the NVQ.

• The timescale for the completion of an Apprenticeship is 11 months.  The timescale for the completion of an Advanced Apprenticeship is between 13 and 18 months dependant on the occupational area.