21 Aug 2023
Unfortunately, redundancy is a fact of life across all sectors and even apprenticeships aren’t immune to economic pressures that weigh on many companies. This may lead to a situation where you are made redundant from your apprenticeship before it has been completed. If this happens to you, it is not necessarily the end of your apprenticeship and we will outline some options below for getting help.
Help for Redundant Apprentices
In the event of apprentices experiencing redundancy, the Education and Skills Funding Agency will work with the affected apprentices and training provider to find another company to step in to honour the apprenticeship. This is actually an excellent deal from a business perspective as they get an apprentice who is already part of the way toward achieving their apprenticeship goals and has some more experience than someone starting from scratch. This is generally the best solution for everyone concerned.
In addition to the above support, there is also the Redundancy Support Service for Apprentices which aims to help get all apprentices in this situation back into a suitable apprenticeship within 12 weeks. The UK Government will fund your apprenticeship training for 12 weeks, in order to give you time to find another employer.
If you have less than six months of your training to go or you have completed more than 75% of your training, you may be able to apply to take your End Point Assessment and complete your apprenticeship anyway. This would then allow you to be a fully qualified apprentice seeking work in your chosen field.
How to Access Financial Support
You should receive 12 weeks of financial support from the moment you are made redundant from your apprenticeship and this should help to tide you over until you can find another suitable apprenticeship or job.
It may be tempting at this point to lose faith in the apprenticeship system but it is a good one and when it works well, it can lead to huge career advancement in a short amount of time. Many employers see their apprentices going on to reach their management tier within 5 years of the apprenticeship completion and this is something that should be given some serious consideration. If you decide not to try to resume your apprenticeship, you may not get the chance at such rapid career progression again in the future.
Citizens Advice
This is an independent organisation which is able to give advice and check that you are receiving the correct benefits for everything that is going on in your life. Their benefit calculator can give you a full benefit check and hopefully point you in the direction of anything you aren’t claiming but should.
Universal Credit
This benefit is one that is very difficult to get thanks to a large, complicated forms that must be filled in before it can be accessed. The Government has received criticism that it has caused more people not to apply who really should by making the forms too complex. Your local MPs office or Citizens Advice can help to fill in the form.
