Glossary
Off-the-job training
Last updated
Part of our topic guide on Data & AI Apprenticeships.
Off-the-job training is the time an apprentice spends learning skills, knowledge and behaviours for their apprenticeship standard, away from their normal day-to-day duties. It's protected, paid time — with a minimum number of hours set per standard — and it's what the levy or government co-investment actually funds.
Why it matters
Get this wrong and you can lose funding, fail a Skills England audit, or land an apprentice at end-point assessment under-prepared. It's also the part employers most often assume they know and don't: off-the-job training isn't a training-room-only concept — shadowing a senior colleague, working through a real project with a coach, or writing up a piece of analysis all count, provided it's building toward the standard rather than just doing the job. That's the whole point of learning by doing: the best off-the-job hours look like real work, assessed on real work, not lectures bolted onto a job.
One thing to get straight early: off-the-job hours must happen in the apprentice's normal, paid working hours. It isn't unpaid homework, and it isn't something they catch up on evenings and weekends — build it into the working week from day one.
How it works
- Who sets the hours: each apprenticeship standard has its own minimum off-the-job hours, published in the apprenticeship funding rules — this replaced the old flat "20% of contracted hours" rule for new starts from 1 August 2025. Hours vary a good deal by standard and level, so check the specific standard rather than assuming a number.
- The floor: whatever the standard requires, no apprenticeship can fund below 187 hours of off-the-job training, even after any reduction for prior learning.
- Prior learning: if an apprentice already holds some of the knowledge, skills or behaviours the standard covers, that content — and the funding for it — can be reduced. It never adds extra funding, and it can't take the total below the 187-hour floor.
- Pre-August-2025 starts: apprentices who started before 1 August 2025 still work to the legacy 20%-of-contracted-hours rule, not the new per-standard hours.
- Who pays: off-the-job training is funded the same way as the rest of an apprenticeship — through the employer's Growth & Skills Levy (formerly the Apprenticeship Levy) funds, a levy transfer from another employer, or government co-investment for employers below the £3 million pay-bill threshold. It cannot be paid for from wages, travel or other employment costs.
- What it isn't: off-the-job training is distinct from the funding mechanics that pay for it and from the assessment that checks it — see levy transfer and co-investment for how the money actually works.