Glossary
Off-the-job training
Training an apprentice receives during working hours that is not part of their normal day-to-day duties.
In full
Off-the-job training is learning delivered within the apprentice's paid working hours, away from their routine duties, that teaches the knowledge, skills and behaviours in the standard.
A minimum amount is required, it must be planned and recorded, and the records are a standard audit test. For apprentices starting from 1 August 2025, the minimum is the number of hours published on each apprenticeship standard, reduced only for evidenced prior learning and never below 187 hours. Apprentices who started up to 31 July 2025 keep the previous rule of 20% of normal working hours, capped at 30 hours a week (about 6 hours a week).
Where this comes up
diagnostic
Actual off-the-job training hours
Actual off-the-job training hours. Review areas: Off-the-job training hours.
diagnostic
Actual off-the-job training hours compared to those planned
Actual off-the-job training hours compared to those planned. Review areas: Off-the-job training hours.
diagnostic
Planned off-the-job training hours
Planned off-the-job training hours. Review areas: Off-the-job training hours.
diagnostic
All learners and learning aims within the apprenticeship programme
All learners and learning aims within the apprenticeship programme. Review areas: Negotiated prices, including total negotiated price as proportion of funding band maximum and total assessment price as proportion of funding band maximum; Off-the-job training, including average weekly planned off-the-job training hours; Own employees; Small Employer.
module
Apprenticeship funding: price, band, service and evidence
A price negotiated with each employer, capped by the band maximum, paid monthly with a completion element, and dependent on the ILR and the apprenticeship service agreeing.
module
What good evidence looks like
Evidence is not paperwork for its own sake. It is the demonstration that a funded activity genuinely happened as recorded, and it has three properties.