An apprenticeship is a long-term training commitment which seeks to support people entering the workforce and upskill existing UK-based employees within an organisation, enabling employers to foster a workforce consisting of highly skilled and highly engaged talent.

The Cambridge Spark Data Citizen Apprenticeship runs for 13 months plus a 3-month end-point assessment and includes a minimum of 6 hours per week off-the-job training, enabling a blended approach between theory and practical learning.

The UK government introduced the Apprenticeship Levy scheme in April 2017 as a way to drive investment in strengthening the country’s skills base.

All organisations with annual staff costs of over £3m have to pay 0.5% of their salary bill into a ring-fenced apprenticeship levy pot. The money is collected monthly via PAYE and can only be used for training on approved apprenticeship schemes (such as the Level 3 Data Citizen Apprenticeship that we offer). Organisations must forfeit any levy funding left unspent for 24 months or more.

Off-the-job training is defined as learning undertaken outside of the day-to-day work duties and during the apprentice’s normal working hours.

Our off-the-job training is delivered on a flexible basis and can be carried out at the apprentice’s place of work or home.

The 6 hours per week, minimum, off-the-job training provides learners with the time to focus and develop the required skills, knowledge and behaviours to complete the programme.

Managers will need to ensure apprentices achieve their planned  off-the-job training hours and work on their project portfolio.

We also encourage managers to have regular one-to-one meetings with apprentices to catch up on how they are progressing and to join the apprentice and their coach for 30 minutes every 3-4 months for a general catch up about the programme.