Q. As you are chair of the Trailblazer group that bought the payroll apprenticeship to the UK, I wondered if you knew how I might go about finding a training provider to deliver it for us?
To start, I must reiterate that I am so pleased that the apprenticeship is now ‘available for delivery’ on the UK Institute for Apprenticeships’ website. But it is also worth noting that its further success depends on three main groups of people:
- Apprenticeship training providers
It is up to apprenticeship training providers (ATPs) to deliver the qualification to employers – unless individual employers are registered providers themselves and plan to develop their own offerings. In truth though, it will take them some time to get to grips with the very rigorous and detailed learning outcomes contained in the Assessment Plan.
As many organisations will not yet have the training material needed to deliver the apprenticeship, I have been working with a number of providers to help them there.
- End-point assessment organisations
End-point assessment organisations (EPAOs) will play a crucial role. While I am aware that one large EPAO is going through the process of finalising their material at the moment, it has been difficult for many of them as they could not do so until the Assessment Plan was up-and-running. But members of the Trailblazer group and I have been in contact with them to keep them abreast of what is happening.
- Employers
Coming back to your point about finding ATPs, the best starting point is the ‘Find Apprenticeship Training’ website, which is meant to be a ‘one-stop shop’ and lists providers whose offerings are aligned with the Payroll Administrator Apprenticeship. Once you have accessed the website, simply:
- Indicate whether you are looking:
- For training providers for a particular apprenticeship (I would advise this option); or
- To establish if a particular provider is offering the Payroll Administrator Apprenticeship.
Next:
- Enter a key word – i.e. ‘payroll’. The website will highlight all of the apprenticeships related to payroll;
- Select the level three Payroll Administrator Apprenticeship and it will display a summary of the qualification;
- Select the ‘Find training providers’ link at the bottom;
- Enter your postcode and whether or not you are a Levy-paying employer – this is important because some providers will only work with Levy-paying employers so it acts as a filtering mechanism. But I would tend to say that it is best to indicate you do pay the Levy even if you do not as there appears to be an issue with the filtering process;
- Press ‘search’ and you will see a list of training providers that are aligned with the apprenticeship as well as their contact information.
Ian Holloway is head of legislation and compliance at Cintra HR and Payroll Services. He was involved in processing payrolls large and small from organisations across all sectors until 2011 when he started helping to educate the profession by developing course material, newsletters and face-to-face presentations.
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Q. As you are chair of the Trailblazer group that bought the payroll apprenticeship to the UK, I wondered if you knew how I might go about finding a training provider to deliver it for us?
To start, I must reiterate that I am so pleased that the apprenticeship is now ‘available for delivery’ on the UK Institute for Apprenticeships’ website. But it is also worth noting that its further success depends on three main groups of people:
- Apprenticeship training providers
It is up to apprenticeship training providers (ATPs) to deliver the qualification to employers – unless individual employers are registered providers themselves and plan to develop their own offerings. In truth though, it will take them some time to get to grips with the very rigorous and detailed learning outcomes contained in the Assessment Plan.
As many organisations will not yet have the training material needed to deliver the apprenticeship, I have been working with a number of providers to help them there.
- End-point assessment organisations
End-point assessment organisations (EPAOs) will play a crucial role. While I am aware that one large EPAO is going through the process of finalising their material at the moment, it has been difficult for many of them as they could not do so until the Assessment Plan was up-and-running. But members of the Trailblazer group and I have been in contact with them to keep them abreast of what is happening.
- Employers
Coming back to your point about finding ATPs, the best starting point is the ‘Find Apprenticeship Training’ website, which is meant to be a ‘one-stop shop’ and lists providers whose offerings are aligned with the Payroll Administrator Apprenticeship. Once you have accessed the website, simply:
- Indicate whether you are looking:
- For training providers for a particular apprenticeship (I would advise this option); or
- To establish if a particular provider is offering the Payroll Administrator Apprenticeship.
Next:
- Enter a key word – i.e. ‘payroll’. The website will highlight all of the apprenticeships related to payroll;
- Select the level three Payroll Administrator Apprenticeship and it will display a summary of the qualification;
- Select the ‘Find training providers’ link at the bottom;
- Enter your postcode and whether or not you are a Levy-paying employer – this is important because some providers will only work with Levy-paying employers so it acts as a filtering mechanism. But I would tend to say that it is best to indicate you do pay the Levy even if you do not as there appears to be an issue with the filtering process;
- Press ‘search’ and you will see a list of training providers that are aligned with the apprenticeship as well as their contact information.
Ian Holloway is head of legislation and compliance at Cintra HR and Payroll Services. He was involved in processing payrolls large and small from organisations across all sectors until 2011 when he started helping to educate the profession by developing course material, newsletters and face-to-face presentations.
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