
ENGLAND
Apprenticeships programmes The Open University offers in England.
The Open University (OU) has been transforming students' lives and delivering high standards of education for over half a century.
We offer Higher Apprenticeships and Degree Apprenticeships across the UK delivered by blended learning, to allow greater flexibility for employers and apprentices.
Our apprenticeships provision comprises healthcare, policing, social work, digital, systems thinking, management and leadership in England, and digital and IT programmes in Scotland and Wales.
An apprenticeship is a job with training. Apprentices spend approximately 80% of their time on their day-to-day role (on-the-job training) and 20% completing learning activities (off-the-job training).
Apprenticeships develop employees’ professional knowledge, skills and behaviours whilst they’re working in your organisation, enhancing their performance and expertise. Find out how apprenticeships can benefit your organisation.
Apprenticeships are delivered by the employer, in partnership with an approved apprenticeship provider like the OU. They’re available from Level 2 to Level 8.
We offer apprenticeships from Level 4 to Level 7 in England, Level 6 (Scottish Level 10) and Level 7 (Scottish Level 11) in Scotland and Level 6 in Wales.
Develop the skills which are relevant for your organisation, improve productivity and staff morale.
Earn while you learn and develop the skills you need to gain access to sectors you want to work in.
The Open University has offered apprenticeships since 2016 and now offers higher and degree programmes in healthcare, policing, social work, digital, systems thinking, management and leadership in England. Digital and IT programmes are offered in Scotland and Wales.
Our extensive geographical reach enables consistent educational programmes to be delivered at scale, across geographically dispersed workforces, from individual learners to whole cohorts.
The Open University is rated ‘Good’ from Ofsted (Level 5 apprenticeships).
An apprenticeship is a job with a formal programme of training. Employers will need to allow at least 20% of an apprentice’s working time to be allocated for what is called 'off-the-job training' in England and 'protected time' in Scotland. This is time for the apprentice to engage in the learning with the OU.
For full guidance visit:
Off-the-job training or protected time is defined as learning which is undertaken outside of the normal day-to-day working environment within contracted hours, leading towards the achievement of an apprenticeship.
It must:
Click on the flowchart below to see what counts as off-the-job training.
Examples of what could be included (*) | Examples of what's not included (*) |
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(*) More detailed information can be found in the 20%-off-the-job training guide.
20% off-the-job sounds like it’s a loss but actually it quickly turns into a benefit in that you get increased employee productivity and engagement. It’s an initial investment of 20% but you’ll find part way through the course that switching to a payback. It quickly turns into a benefit back to the business.”
Senior Early Professional Manager, IBM
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