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Do we keep the duration at 24 months with some file notes explaining the reason why the off the job couldn't be reduced in line with the skill scan?
Essentially, yes. The rules don't really account for degree apprenticeships, or really any academic qualification where it's neither practical nor feasible to omit whole/elements of modules, especially where they occur in the middle of the qualification. They do say (as a bit of a catch-all):
25.3.1 Where content is to be omitted from the training plan, this must be shown as a volume of off-the-job training hours. This reduction in hours must translate to a reduction in duration and price (see exception at paragraph 25.3.2). If the provider cannot reduce the duration, they must still meet the minimum requirements of the off-the-job training policy for the full duration of the apprenticeship that has been reported to us in the ILR.
Fundamentally, as long as you're not charging for stuff that the apprentice definitely doesn't need, you should be fine. Whilst it's not explicitly stated in the rules, the ESFA have said many times during webinars that this is primarily what they're concerned about.
Wayne Hosking
RPL duration / OTJ reduction help
Edited
Hi all,
Any helpful advice would be good on this one.
We run some L7 apprenticeships, have completed the skill scans which show varying % reductions, one is around 24% (mainly workbased RPL skills).
The issue we are having is the duration cannot be reduced as a Masters HE element is part of the apprenticeship and a requirement to run that over 2 years (its considered P/T HE).
This has meant that by reducing the OTJ by the said amount will cause a DSAT error stating the learner planned OTJ is below the minimum based on the 24 month duration (which we cannot reduce due to the above)
Thoughts?
Do we keep the duration at 24 months with some file notes explaining the reason why the off the job couldn't be reduced in line with the skill scan?
We will be reducing the price accordingly.
Yours
Wayne