Apprenticeship programme guidance on COVID-19

4 April 2022

Following the next phase of the government’s pandemic response, Living with COVID-19, set out by the Prime Minister on 21 February 2022, we are withdrawing the guidance on providing apprenticeships during the COVID-19 pandemic on 1 April 2022.

The apprenticeship programme responded quickly to support apprentices, employers, training providers, end-point assessment organisations and external quality assurance providers, in dealing with and responding to the impact of COVID-19.

We worked with the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, Ofqual and others to mitigate the disruption to assessment, training, and employment as a result of the pandemic. We provided clarification on the existing funding rules and introduced several temporary flexibilities to support apprentices and employers to continue with, and complete, their programmes and we encouraged providers and assessment organisations to deliver training and assessments flexibly, including remotely, to enable this.

The temporary flexibility that allowed employers and training providers to initiate and report a break in learning in certain scenarios ended on 31 March 2022. Apprentices will continue to be able to initiate a break in learning, as set out in the funding rules. The flexibility allowing apprenticeship certificates to be sent to the apprentice’s training provider address, or to the apprentice themselves if the employer’s office is closed (including requests for a replacement certificate), is under review.

The Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education’s website continues to have the latest information on the flexibilities and discretions to end-point assessment introduced by the Institute. 

All other content in the guidance on providing apprenticeships during the COVID-19 pandemic is either no longer needed, is already available elsewhere on gov.uk (for example redundancy support for apprentices) or is in the apprenticeship funding rules.