Consultation on Preventing the Term 'Apprentice' from Being Misused
Further to our previous article about the government's intention to make the term 'apprenticeship' legally protected, the government has now opened a consultation seeking views on how best to implement this intention.
The consultation is tasked with seeking views on the enforcement element of making 'apprentice' and 'apprenticeship' legally protected terms. The government would like to make it an offence to use such terms if the job/ training is not a government funded apprenticeship. The current recommended penalty would be a fine.
The government's reasoning behind this is to avoid diluting the 'apprentice' brand with lower quality courses. It would also prevent an employer offering poor quality training, as well as avoiding employers being able to pay lower than the national minimum wage by calling it an apprenticeship.
The consultation closes on 19 August 2015.
We will report on any further developments in this area as and when they arise.