Apprenticeships Update – Covid-19 response for businesses from The Sheffield College

27th March 2020

In response to the impact of COVID-19, the government has released a package of measures to ensure employers, training providers and assessment organisations can continue to support their apprentices through to the completion of their Apprenticeship.

Retaining Staff including Apprentices

Employers can access the Chancellors support for businesses such as the Job Retention Fund to retain staff including apprentices. For full information click here.

Continuation of Apprenticeships

The temporary flexibilities that the Government has introduced to enable apprentices to continue their learning or alternatively take a break from their learning and resume their apprenticeship at a later date include:

encouraging training providers to deliver training to apprentices remotely and via e-learning where suitable
allowing the modification of end-point assessment arrangements, including remote assessments wherever practicable and possible
clarifying that apprentices ready for assessment, but who cannot be assessed due to COVID-19 issues, can have their end-point assessment rescheduled. Apprentices whose Gateway is delayed can have an extension to the assessment timeframe
enabling employers and training providers to report and initiate a break in learning where the interruption to learning due to COVID-19 is greater than four weeks
clarification on how to record breaks in learning so that funding is not unnecessarily disrupted
To guard against disruption for those apprentices undertaking an End Point Assessment (EPA), flexibilities have been introduced to enable apprentices to complete their apprenticeship where possible. EPA Organisations will be agreeing arrangements where remote assessment can take place or simulation, can replace the normal working environment where appropriate.

The full Government guidance and a section on frequently asked questions can be found here.

Sheffield College Actions

At The Sheffield College, we are working hard to ensure that training is continuing wherever possible e.g. online learning, 1to1 tutoring via skype etc. If we haven’t already been in touch with you directly then we will look to speak with you about the support that is in place to enable apprenticeship learning to continue.

We want to work closely with you during this challenging time. If there is anything you want to discuss then please contact employer@sheffcol.ac.uk or your normal College contact.