Higher and Degree apprenticeships

If you are planning to set up a Degree Apprenticeship programme, you should contact us when you are in a position to discuss your plans for delivery of the programme. It is best to contact us sooner rather than later.

How we assess programmes

Our standards of education and training (SETs) are designed to be flexible, which means they can be applied to a variety of training models. Education providers will need to demonstrate how their apprenticeship programme meets our standards.

Generally, we will consider new apprenticeship provision as a new programme, which we will consider via the approval process. This would usually be the case where you are brand new to the profession or are already approved to deliver training within the profession. Our approval process is applied flexibly depending on the situation, taking into account existing approved provision.

We need to approve new apprenticeship programmes before apprentices can start their training. Please see our approval process page for further information about the process to follow.

Progress against the Institute for Apprenticeships’ requirements

We will progress our assessment in the most timely and efficient way that we can to support you. However, you will need to consider how much detail you can provide to us at the point of engaging with us. We may need to delay our assessment of your programme until you are able to consider how programme design and delivery might be brought together to allow us to consider the programme against our standards.

When engaging with our processes, education providers should consider the profession’s progress against the Institute for Apprenticeships’ requirements. For example, it may be difficult for programmes to demonstrate how they are sustainable and fit for purpose (a requirement of our standards) if the funding band has not be agreed.

We will provide advice about our regulatory process and standards to trailblazer groups, but are unable to formally sit on the group, or provide direction about how the profession should develop their standard.

Standards that may be affected

Depending on the model of training, changes may affect several standards, including:

• Admissions (SET 2), especially those around professional entry, accreditation or prior (experiential) learning, and equality and diversity may be Impacted by changes to admissions for widened access to the programme.
• Programme governance, management and leadership (SET 3), and practice-based learning (SET 5) may be impacted due to the changing relationship between the employer and the education provider.
• Assessment (SET 6) is likely to be impacted if the End Point Assessment (EPA) is embedded within the programme.
• Programme design and delivery (SET 4), assessment (SET 6), programme governance, management and leadership (SET 3), and practice-based learning (SET 5) may be impacted by changes to the structure of the programme, teaching and assessment methods.