You must pay your apprentices at least the national minimum wage and ensure they will be working alongside experienced staff, learning job-specific skills. You are entitled to pay your apprentice the “apprentice rate” if they are either:
- aged under 19
- aged 19 or over and in the first year of their apprenticeship
You must therefore be careful to monitor your compliance with the NMW regulations. Apprentices grow older!
You are also legally required to allocate 6 hours per week of the apprentice’s paid normal working hours to off-the-job training (OTJT). The OTJT hours do not have to be evenly spread throughout the apprenticeship and can be front or rear-end loaded to fit in with your business and the apprentice’s training opportunities. OTJT can take place at the apprentice’s workplace, at a training provider’s premises, online or a combination thereof.
In addition to paying apprentices, you are also required to give them the same employment conditions as other employees who are working in similar roles. This includes paid holidays, sick pay, relevant benefits such as childcare vouchers, notice periods, and also any support which is offered to other employees such as coaching or mentoring. Apprentices also have the same employment rights as other employees in a redundancy situation.
As their employer, you will need to create an apprenticeship agreement with your apprentice. This agreement must give details of the skill or occupation the apprentice is being trained for, the name of the apprenticeship they are enrolled onto, the start and end dates of the apprenticeship, and the amount of training you will provide.
There must also be a commitment statement in place between you, the apprentice, and the training provider. This statement should cover the contents of the apprenticeship and the training schedule, what is expected and offered by you and the training provider, plus there should also be a section on how to resolve any queries or complaints.
