The apprentice has a new job
Halfway through their programme, an apprentice tells their coach they have been made redundant, or they have been offered a better role at another company in the same sector. They want to carry on with the apprenticeship. The new employer is willing.
Now the coach has to work out what happens. A new employer agreement, a revised training plan, possibly new eligibility checks, updates to the MIS, a conversation with the old employer about the leaving date, a change to who is invoiced, new line manager contacts in the e-portfolio. Different people know different parts. It takes weeks, and during those weeks the apprentice's learning is in limbo.
Why this is harder than it looks
- It is not common enough for anyone to remember the steps.
- It involves the old employer, the new employer, the learner and several of your teams.
- There may be a gap between the two jobs, which needs recording.
- The new role may not fit the standard in the same way, which needs checking before anything else.
- Records keep the old employer's contacts, so review and signature requests go to the wrong place.
What a messy change costs
The apprentice loses momentum, sometimes enough to give up. The new employer's first experience of your provision is confusion. Your data may show the wrong employer for months, and invoices may go to the wrong company.
How the change is treated for funding, and whether the new role fits the standard, are decisions for your team and adviser. What we fix is the handling: nothing missed, nothing done twice, everyone told.
A change of employer workflow
- The coach starts a change with one form: the learner, old employer, new employer, leaving and joining dates, and the new role.
- The first step is a check that the new role still fits the standard, recorded by the coach with a note, before paperwork goes out.
- The new employer agreement and revised training plan are created from templates with the learner's current progress filled in, and sent for signature through your usual flow.
- Tasks are created with owners: MIS update, e-portfolio contacts, invoicing changes, old employer confirmation of the leaving date.
- The old employer gets a short message thanking them and confirming the date, and their access to the learner's updates ends.
- The manager sees each change in progress and which step it is waiting on.
| Step | Owner | Blocks the next step? |
|---|---|---|
| Role fits the standard | Coach | Yes |
| New employer agreement signed | New employer | Yes |
| Revised training plan signed | Learner, new employer, provider | Yes |
| MIS and e-portfolio updated | Data team and coach | No |
| Invoicing moved | Finance | No |
| Old employer closed off | Account manager | No |
A change handled in days, not weeks
The coach fills in the form the day the apprentice tells them. Within the week, the new employer has signed and the revised plan is out for signature. The data team and finance each have a clear task. The old employer hears from you, politely, rather than finding out when the next review request goes to a line manager who no longer manages anyone.
Learning restarts with the new employer quickly, and every step is recorded for the learner file.
Because every change of employer runs through the same steps, the learner file looks the same whichever coach handled it, and six months later anyone can open it and follow what happened, when, and who agreed it. The workflow also records how often changes happen and with which employers, which is useful when a sector is going through redundancies and several of your apprentices are affected at once.
Is this a familiar mess?
- Changes of employer take weeks to sort out.
- Nobody is sure of all the steps involved.
- Review requests go to the old employer after a change.
- Invoices continue to the wrong company.
- The learner's progress stalls during the change.