Delivering apprenticeships in England
Apprenticeships are a great way for your students to get hands-on experience and learn the tricks of the trade, and it’s no different for accountancy. Accounting apprenticeships are a perfect study route to help people develop new, enhanced and industry-relevant skills.
We're seeing more employers using apprenticeships as a way to develop and enhance their existing workforce or to attract new staff, so an apprenticeship is a viable career path and a great alternative to university.
Offering apprenticeships is also a great way to support and upskill individuals within your local community. And in England, the apprenticeship levy and government support available is all in place to help with funding.
On-programme learning and the gateway
On-programme learning is the element of the apprenticeship that provides the apprentice with the required knowledge, skills and behaviours. The programme must run for a minimum of one year and result in the apprentice being prepared for the End Point Assessment (EPA).
While there's no requirement for qualifications within the Level 4 apprenticeship, AAT’s Level 4 Diploma in Professional Accounting qualification is the perfect answer to some of the knowledge and skills requirements. Undertaking the qualification clearly sets out progression milestones for the apprentices, based around the unit assessments.
We are also an End Point Assessment Organisation (EPAO) for the Level 2 Accounts/Finance Assistant apprenticeship and the Level 3 Assistant Accountant apprenticeship, for which the Level 2 Certificate in Accounting and the Level 3 Diploma in Accounting qualifications are a requirement.
The behaviour and skills elements of the on-programme learning will be developed through workplace learning, and will reinforce the knowledge elements gained through the AAT accounting qualification units.
As the apprentice works their way towards the end of the on-programme learning you’d need to work with the employer to sign off the apprentice as ready to go through the gateway.
The gateway is the point at which an employer, with the support of the training provider, decides if the apprentice has developed the skills, knowledge and behaviours to take the EPA. Once the employer has signed this off, the training provider can schedule the individual components of the EPA.
Learn how apprenticeship and End Point Assessment fees are paid.
We're recruiting Independent Assessors to assess the portfolio/reflective components of EPAs.
Next steps
Interested in delivering apprenticeships alongside AAT accounting qualifications? Get in touch with an AAT Regional Account Manager and we'll talk you through the next steps.
