Glossary
Break in learning
A pause in an apprenticeship or programme where the learner is expected to return, recorded as a temporary withdrawal rather than a withdrawal.
In full
A break in learning suspends the programme with the intention that the learner comes back. It is recorded as a temporary withdrawal, earnings stop for the period of the break, and the aim is preserved so it can restart.
Recording a break as a withdrawal, or a withdrawal as a break, misstates both the funding and the achievement rate. The distinction rests on the genuine intention at the time, evidenced.
For apprenticeships the rules also require a break in some cases: when no off-the-job learning is planned within a calendar month, and when an apprentice's job has ended (other than by redundancy) and no new job has started within 4 weeks. If they have not restarted with a new employer within 12 weeks of the job ending, they must be withdrawn. Redundancy has its own rules (apprenticeship funding rules 2026 to 2027, paragraphs 306 to 307.1 and 312 to 316).
Where this comes up
diagnostic
Should this be a break in learning or a withdrawal?
The learner has stopped, and the question is whether to record a break in learning, which pauses the programme on the basis that they will return, or a withdrawal, which ends it. The two have different funding and achievement consequences, so the choice is not administrative.
module
Withdrawals, breaks and restarts
How leaving is recorded, why the date matters as much as the fact, and where the line falls between a break in learning and a withdrawal.
diagnostic
Breaks in learning where learning is not re-planned on return
Breaks in learning where learning is not re-planned on return. Review areas: Breaks in learning.
diagnostic
Long breaks in learning with no resumption
Long breaks in learning with no resumption. Review areas: Breaks in learning.
diagnostic
The Total Negotiated Price Record must not be on or after the learning start date of an open programme aim where the learner has previously withdrawn.
For open apprenticeship standard programmes started on or after 1 August 2022 where the learner has previously withdrawn or temporarily withdrawn due to an agreed break in learning the apprenticeship financial record date for a total negotiated price record on that withdrawn programme aim must not be on or after the learning start date of an open programme aim.
scenario
An apprentice goes on long-term sick leave
An apprentice is signed off work indefinitely. Deciding between a break in learning and a withdrawal is a funding, performance and evidence decision all at once.
Sources
These are the official documents this page rests on. Where a figure, a deadline or an exact rule matters, the document is the authority and this page is the explanation.
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