Last date of learning for completions/entering gateway

It is always the last evidenced day in learning and not the date of gateway, last piece of work, review or last day with employer.

HTH

Agree in general with Martin, is has to be evidenced, and handing in work is not that for Apprentices.

However, Actual End Date is Gateway. ESFA Guidance;

Final day

Defined in legislation as the final day of the practical period. This is the equivalent of the learning end date on the ILR (there must be evidence of learning on this learning end date) and internally it is also referred to as the “gateway” between the practical period and the end-point assessment. The term ‘final day’ is used as a measure in the redundancy policy to determine if the apprentice will be fully funded to completion.  

I know Gateway doesn't always get signed off on that day, but Gateway is still the day they finish the practical period.

That’s not the view of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE)

Gateway and start of the end-point assessment

What is gateway?

Gateway sits between the end of training and the beginning of the assessment period when the EPA will take place.

At gateway, the employer and training provider will review their apprentice’s knowledge, skills and behaviours to see if they are ready to take their EPA.

The gateway review takes place near the end of an apprenticeship to make sure the apprentice has completed the mandatory aspects of the apprenticeship and is ready to take their assessment.

Apprentices must meet the gateway requirements set out in the assessment plan before taking their EPA.

The gateway date is not recorded on the ILR but some MI systems include this field for completeness.

Sorry for any confusion

"there must be evidence of learning on this learning end date" would be the key for me. Gateway meetings do not always contain evidence of learning as really this is the day you are compiling evidence the apprentice has completed all their learning so you wouldn't always expect to do a learning activity. 

We would go from the date we can evidence learning has taken place, a submission would not cover this unless learning took place on that day. Hope that helps

Thank you all for your input, so we would be better off using the date of the last lecture/seminar they attended that is recorded on their OTJ log/timesheet?

That is what we do, anything that we can demonstrate new learning towards their apprenticeship would be the last date we use the same for withdrawals and breaks. 

Martin West It would be nice if the different parties actually talked to each other and got their definitions straight! Do IfATE mean the date of the review? If it were determined that the apprentice weren't ready, there'd be more delivery, so the AED would be after that initial review. Not that it matters from an ILR point of view.

Just one more question on this, is the actual end date (date of last lecture etc) falls before their planned end date.... are there any consequences of this?

No, any balance payment due would be paid with the completion payment when they complete.

Martin West - If an apprentice completes practical and then refuses to sit EPA and so withdraws. Do you know if we would get the remaining 80% (we know we won't get to 20%)

If they withdraw before EPA, you'd only get OPPs up to and including the last full month you reported them as being on programme (in learning) because

• you wouldn't change the learning actual end date when they withdrew, and
• you wouldn't populate the achievement date, which would otherwise precipitate the balancing/completion payment

If the last date in learning was 3 months before the planned end date, you'd lose those 3 months if they don't complete EPA

45. If the apprentice leaves early, for example, they withdraw from the programme, the monthly instalments stop. We will not calculate a monthly instalment for the final month if the apprentice withdraws before the last day of the month in which the learning stops

EDIT: Sorry, didn't see you'd specifically tagged Martin! 

I wonder if anyone can clarify this:  in the Training Plan we set the End of Practical period Planned End Date as  the last day of evidenced learning (then reported as Actual End Date on ILR).  The Gateway Review takes place some time later (not shown on ILR).   Reading the thread above, that sounds like it's a common approach. 

But in calculating OTJ hours, does the 6 hour/20% rule apply until Gateway, or does it stop on last day of evidenced learning?  

There seems to be no way to resolve the 'practical period ends at gateway' and 'practical period ends on last day of evidenced learning' interpretations.

Off-the-job can only take place during the practical period i.e., between the learning start and learning actual end date. 

Off-the-job training

66.1.  It is training which is received by the apprentice within their practical period, during the apprentice’s normal working hours, for the purpose of achieving the knowledge, skills and behaviours of the apprenticeship they are undertaking. By normal working hours we mean the hours for which the apprentice would normally be paid, excluding overtime.

Practical period

The period for which the apprentice is expected to work and receive training under an approved English apprenticeship agreement. The start date and the end date of the practical period (as recorded on the apprenticeship agreement and training plan) must align with the planned learning start date and the learning end date on the ILR.

Might be worthwhile to consider gateway as a period, rather than a point. Starting when the practical period ends, and concluding when everyone is content (the review/sign-off), at which point EPA can take place.