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Off-the-job training is the part of an apprenticeship that most often trips schools up. Get it right and your apprentice learns quickly, evidence is easy and audits are painless. This planner sets out what counts, what does not, and how to build the hours into a busy school week.
Off-the-job training, or OTJT, is learning undertaken during the apprentice's paid working hours but outside their normal job duties. It has to build the knowledge, skills and behaviours in the apprenticeship standard, and it has to be planned, tracked and evidenced. Everything else is just the day job.
OTJT has to be planned in advance, built into the apprentice's schedule and recorded throughout the programme. It is subject to ESFA funding audits and Ofsted inspection, so treat the paperwork as seriously as the learning.
The goal is roughly 6 hours a week for a full-time apprentice, balanced across term time. One realistic week might look like this:
Schools have to be creative to protect OTJT hours without compromising staff deployment. Options that work well include INSET days, early finishes and directed time, morning or afternoon release slots, twilight CPD sessions and protected planning time. Whichever pattern you choose, make sure line managers know that OTJT is a protected commitment, not a first-choice cover slot.
If OTJT is slipping, raise it with your provider early. It is far easier to reset a schedule mid-programme than to explain the gap at end-point assessment.
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