Apprenticeships and work experience
General information about apprenticeships
Welcome to the Warwickshire County Council Apprenticeship Prospectus; a go to guide for apprenticeship programmes available to employees across the authority.
Apprenticeships are available to anyone at any point in their career – they are not exclusively for younger people at the start of their career. Funded, in all cases, by the Apprenticeship Levy (there is usually no cost to you or your service budget, and your salary is unaffected), apprenticeships offer the opportunity to gain new/higher skills, knowledge and qualifications. They are especially suited to anybody taking on a new role, or new responsibilities in their current role, to support career progression.
What is an apprenticeship?
An apprenticeship is a vocational development programme that anyone can make part of their job to gain further skills, knowledge, and behaviours and to develop their role specific abilities and career prospects. There is a huge range of types of apprenticeship, known as “apprenticeship standards”, that can be mapped to thousands of job roles. Anyone who is employed can undertake an apprenticeship, providing it is applicable to their job role and that they are academically eligible for it. In all cases, an apprenticeship is delivered by an accredited Apprenticeship Training Provider (e.g., a college, university, or private training company) to undertake a blended learning programme. Each programme listed in this prospectus includes information on which training provider delivers it and how they do that.
An apprenticeship is a long-term commitment, usually taking between 15 – 30 months to complete. Some can be even longer, especially degree apprenticeships.
Apprenticeships are available at the following levels:
| Name | Level | Equivalent educational level |
|---|---|---|
| Intermediate | 2 | GCSE |
| Advanced | 3 | A-Level |
| Higher | 4,5,6 and 7 | Foundation degree or above |
| Degree | 6 and 7 | Bachelor's or Master's degree |
There are four key stages of an apprenticeship:
Enrolment
To begin an apprenticeship training programme, your training provider will organise a meeting with you and your line manager to outline the programme, discuss your development needs and aims, and complete some paperwork, including the commitment statement, signed by the learner, manager, and provider as a tripartite agreement of commitment to completion of the apprenticeship. The provider must check that you are eligible for the apprenticeship before you can officially enrol, as it is a funding rule that by undertaking an apprenticeship you will gain substantial new learning that you have not done before, either via previous qualifications or substantial employment experience.
Delivery
Each apprenticeship programme is delivered in a specific way by the training provider, depending on the skills and knowledge requirements of the apprenticeship. Some programmes can be delivered fully in the workplace or online, others are delivered via workshops or practical sessions at the providers training premises, often on day release (one day per time) or even block release (two or more consecutive days per time). The delivery of the programme will be outlined for you at the enrolment meeting so that you know what to expect and when the training will take place.
Gateway
This is the point towards the end of the apprenticeship programme where you are deemed to have achieved all the skills, knowledge, and behaviour competencies of the apprenticeship and completed all associated certificates and assignments. From here you proceed to the end-point assessment, for which the remainder of your programme will be focused on preparation for.
End Point Assessment
The “EPA” is the final part of the apprenticeship, completion of which completes the full programme. At the EPA you will be required to show how you have met the skills, knowledge, and behaviours of your apprenticeship via the assessment method chosen for the apprenticeship you have undertaken. Often this includes a professional discussion and a presentation of your portfolio of evidence which has been created throughout the programme, but there are many other methods of assessment, and each apprenticeship will have differences. The EPA is run by a separate body, known as an End Point Assessment Organisation (EPAO), usually one that has a chartered status within the profession of your apprenticeship.
Off the job learning
Anyone who undertakes an apprenticeship must be able to factor in the study requirements of the apprenticeship within their working hours, by observing the 20% off the job learning rule applied to all types of apprenticeship. The training provider will set you a target number of learning hours to fulfil across the whole programme, and these are achieved through time spent in any learning, for example workshops, e-learning, writing assignments, work-based projects, reading and research, or even just shadowing colleagues. Your training provider will be able to advise further on how you fulfil the required learning hours, and it does not necessarily require you to have one study day set aside every week.
Functional skills training in English and maths is also included if required, but only if you have not passed one or both at GCSE (or equivalent) level previously or you do not have certificates to prove that.
How to get started
If you find an apprenticeship programme that you wish to undertake, or simply get further information about initially, contact the Apprenticeships and Placements Team at apprentice@warwickshire.gov.uk. We can then inform you of how soon you can start the programme, what you may need to do before you can enrol, and link with the training provider to get started.
It is crucial that before you enrol on any apprenticeship, you have agreed this with your line manager and have their full support, as during the programme they will need to oversee your development and attend progress review meetings with the training provider.