Apprenticeship agreements: England and Wales
Section 32: Meaning of “apprenticeship agreement”
67.This section applies to both England and Wales. The apprenticeship agreement will be a contract entered into between the employer and the apprentice. The Government expects that it should set out both the on-the-job training and the learning away from the workstation that will be delivered; make clear what job role an apprentice will be qualified to hold upon completion; and stipulate the supervision that an apprentice will receive throughout the period of the apprenticeship.
68.Subsection (2) sets out the conditions which must be satisfied by an apprenticeship agreement. The agreement must be in a form to be prescribed by the Secretary of State. Subsection (3) gives the Secretary of State the power to specify provisions which must and must not be included in an apprenticeship agreement. Subsection (4) enables an apprentice to enter into successive apprenticeship agreements relating to the same framework, even where that framework has ceased to be a recognised English or Welsh framework.
Section 33: Ineffective provisions
69.This section provides that if terms are included in an apprenticeship agreement which conflict with provisions that the Secretary of State has required to be included in the agreement, those terms have no effect.
Section 34: Variation
70.A variation to an agreement might be such that the agreement ceases to be an apprenticeship agreement. Section 34 provides that a variation of this type will not have effect unless, before it is made, the employer gives the apprentice written notice that it will have this effect.
Section 35: Status
71.This section provides that an apprenticeship agreement is not to be treated, for common law or statutory purposes, as being a contract of apprenticeship (as recognised at common law) but is instead to be treated as being a contract of service.
Section 36: Crown servants and Parliamentary staff
72.This section makes particular provision for Crown servants, members of the armed forces and Parliamentary staff. Subsection (5) empowers the Secretary of State to modify the application of the Act, or of provisions amended or inserted by the Act, in relation to Crown servants, members of the armed forces, and Parliamentary staff. This power is needed to make the Act work properly in relation to these classes of person, given their particular circumstances: for instance the fact that they may not have contracts of employment.
Section 37: Duty to participate in education or training: apprenticeship agreements.
73.This section amends section 2 of the Education and Skills Act 2008. The effect is that a person may satisfy the participation duty imposed by section 2 (duty to participate in education or training) by participating in training in accordance with an apprenticeship agreement.