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You can drop below minimum hours for a restart (even the 187), including after a full withdrawal. Just make sure you flag as a restart (don't include original start date). All validation rules for hours exclude restarts (such as this one).
Yes, do another Skills Scan, but know that any price reduction you calculate will likely being immaterial (unless the student was way ahead of plan on delivery when they withdrew), because you can still only have what's left in the band. I asked DfE whether the reduction needed representing in the new HRS 4 and RIP fields for restarts, but didn't get a clear answer.
39.1.1 doesn't apply to restarts if it was originally determined there was enough content. It doesn't say that, but you can infer it from everything else (not least the exception in the validation rules). I interpret 86.2 to be talking about the whole programme, however many episodes that falls into.
Yes? No other way of doing really as it's not "properly" linked to their original start like a BIL would be.
I guess you could end up in a situation where what they had left when you do the RPL calc plus what they'd done before *didn't* hit 187, which would be problematic, but can't see it happening with Electrical somehow!!!
Wayne Hosking
Apprenticeship restarts – RPL and 187-hour minimum
Created
Hi all,
I could really do with some advice on apprenticeship restarts, as this is an area I am struggling to pin down from the guidance and have a helpdesk query open for nearly 2 months.
We have an apprentice who previously completed a significant proportion of their electrical apprenticeship, including most of the associated qualification. Following a number of issues around changes of employer and the apprenticeship service account, we eventually had to withdraw them.
They now wish to restart the same apprenticeship, but there is likely to be relatively little training remaining.
My current thinking would be to undertake a fresh skills scan/initial assessment at the point of restart, identify the remaining KSBs and training required, plan the remaining off-the-job training accordingly, and reduce the negotiated price to reflect the learning already completed.
The point I am unsure about is the 187-hour minimum OTJT requirement on a restart.
The 2026/27 funding rules define a restart as where an apprentice “restarts after withdrawing from the programme and joins the same apprenticeship programme from the point that they previously left”.
Paragraph 78.4 also specifically allows an apprentice to return to the same apprenticeship after withdrawal, and paragraph 79 says that, for these exceptions, the total time spent on the apprenticeship may include more than one episode of learning when meeting the minimum duration requirement.
However, paragraph 39.1.1 states:
And paragraph 86.2 states:
My question is therefore:
If a learner is genuinely restarting the same apprenticeship from the point they previously left, and a new skills scan shows that fewer than 187 hours of further OTJT are required, are they ineligible for funded restart?
Or can the OTJT delivered across the original and restarted episodes be considered collectively, in the same way that paragraph 79 expressly allows multiple episodes to be considered for minimum duration?
The combined duration across both episodes is several years, so duration is not the issue; it is specifically how the 187-hour minimum should be interpreted for a restart following withdrawal.
Any clarification or examples of how others are approaching this would be greatly appreciated.
Many thanks,
Wayne