Employer Approval on the DAS

Hi James,

We have been in this situation a good few times now.

If it gets to the point where we are months down the line and they have still not set the DAS up, we send another email with a final deadline and advise that if they do not set the account up by this date then we will have no choice but to remove their apprentice from the programme.

We have never had to withdraw an apprentice so far, this usually does the trick and they set the DAS up. 

Hope this helps,

Claire

I'm not sure this helps, but it's our account managers who have these chats, not anyone from the data teams. I think it's good that non-technical people are talking to the employers, as they understand it's not easy for some people. They're the sales lot, so really good at the relationship stuff. We make sure the account managers have all the training and resources they need, and my team are always around to go through any really complicated ones! We used to have this same issue, but the account managers have been doing a really great job, and we hardly ever get long delays now.

Morning, the only ones who can approve the cohort is the employer, the DAS helpdesk wont intervene.

You could book in time with them to do it over phone with guidance, as some are not 100%  sure what they are looking at.

or you could have a conversation with them about stopping the apprenticeship delivery and withdrawing the learner, unless they sign off the cohorts (give a deadline).

Could prompt them to reach out and whilst not the outcome you want, your are working for free at moment.

My thoughts anyway :)

Many Thanks

Sarah

Thanks all for your replies and feedback. 

Could we say that the employer isn't fulfilling their agreement to keep the DAS updated to the correct standard as requested when they signed up/signed the paperwork for the apprenticeship?

As they don't approve we don't get the funding for the apprenticeship for the initial months until they approve, so if they don't approve it going forward the course is essentially not being funded? And going forward, unless the the approval is completed then we cannot ensure funding for their apprenticeship and their apprentice. 

We do provide options such as a guide, bullet points and do offer to assist over the phone whilst they complete it, not sure what more we can do in terms of assisting them.

Ah yes! We do cover it in our contracts. I forget the wording, but it's essentially that, if the employer, through action or inaction on the DAS, causes us to lose funding, we will invoice the employer for any lost funds. A chunky invoice sometimes gives them the momentum to do something. It's legitimate, as it's basically an unfunded apprenticeship until they sort the DAS.

That generic statement also covers us when they stop the DAS record too early, meaning we lose the completion element and even some on programme payments, then drag their heels about doing the whole rigmarole of changing the stop date back to the start month and creating a whole new DAS record.