Last updated: 25 March 2026

What Changed from August 2025

The 2025/26 ESFA Apprenticeship Funding Rules introduced two interconnected changes to programme duration and off-the-job training that affect every new start from August 2025 onwards.

First, the minimum duration for an apprenticeship was reduced from 12 months to 8 months. This is the floor below which no apprenticeship may be planned, regardless of prior learning, learner capability, or programme intensity.

Second, the method for calculating off-the-job training hours was fundamentally redesigned. Under the old rules, OTJ was calculated as a percentage of the total planned programme hours (20%, subject to various conditions). Under the new rules, each apprenticeship standard has a published minimum number of OTJ hours. That figure is fixed. It does not vary with planned duration, and it does not reduce automatically if a programme is compressed.

These two changes interact in important ways. A provider cannot simply shorten a programme to 8 months and expect the OTJ requirement to shrink proportionally. The published minimum hours must still be met. If those hours cannot be delivered in 8 months given the learner's working pattern, the programme will need to run longer in practice — even if it is technically above the minimum threshold.

Applies to new starts only: The August 2025 funding rule changes apply to apprentices who started on or after 1 August 2025. Apprentices who started before that date should continue on the rules that applied at their start date. Where in doubt, check the funding rules version that was in effect at the date of commitment statement sign-off.

OTJ Hours Are Now Per-Standard: What This Means

The published minimum OTJ hours per standard are listed in the relevant assessment plan or in ESFA's published standard details. Hours vary significantly by standard — a shorter, more focused standard may have a minimum of 187 hours, while a longer professional programme may require 455 hours or more.

The practical implication is that providers can no longer use programme duration as the primary driver of OTJ planning. Instead, the workflow should be:

  • Identify the published minimum OTJ hours for the standard.
  • Establish the learner's weekly working hours to understand how many OTJ hours per week are feasible.
  • Calculate the minimum programme duration required to deliver the published hours at that working pattern.
  • Set the planned end date based on that calculation — subject to the 8-month floor.

This is a more learner-specific calculation than the old percentage model. It means cohorts of learners on the same standard may legitimately have different planned end dates based on their working hours. Your ILR records and commitment statements need to reflect those individual calculations.

Prior Learning and OTJ Reductions

Prior learning can reduce the published minimum OTJ hours, but only under specific conditions. The reduction must be supported by documented evidence from an initial assessment that identifies what prior knowledge or skills the learner already has, at what level, and how that maps to the KSBs for the standard. A general statement that the learner has relevant experience does not meet the requirement. The reduction must be recorded on the commitment statement and reflected in the planned OTJ hours on the ILR.

Providers should ensure that their initial assessment process is rigorous enough to generate the evidence required to support an OTJ reduction claim. Auditors will look for the documented assessment, not just the reduced hours figure.

Part-Time Apprentices: No Automatic Extensions

Under the previous rules, part-time apprentices who worked fewer than standard contracted hours could receive an automatic extension to their planned duration. That automatic extension mechanism has been removed.

Part-time apprentices must now meet the published minimum OTJ hours within the constraints of their working pattern. This does not mean they will always complete in 8 months — it means their planned end date should be calculated individually based on the OTJ hours achievable at their specific working hours, with the 8-month minimum as the floor.

The removal of automatic extensions means that providers need to calculate duration more carefully at the point of enrolment for part-time learners, rather than relying on an administrative adjustment later. Commitment statements for part-time learners should document the OTJ hours per week calculation and the resulting planned end date explicitly.

Common error — compressing existing programme plans: Some providers have been shortening planned end dates on existing programme plans to reflect the new 8-month minimum without recalculating OTJ hours. This creates ILR data that does not add up: the planned OTJ hours per week implied by the shortened duration may be undeliverable given the learner's working pattern. Auditors will identify this. Review duration and OTJ together, not separately.

ILR Reporting Implications

The new duration and OTJ model has direct implications for several ILR fields. Key points to check on each record:

  • Planned end date (field: LearnPlanEndDate): Must reflect the calculated duration based on published OTJ hours and learner working pattern, not simply the old 12-month default or the minimum 8 months.
  • OTJ hours (field: OutGrade / HESubContractRef — check your MIS): The planned OTJ figure recorded must match the published minimum for the standard, adjusted only for documented prior learning reductions.
  • Commitment statement alignment: ILR data must be consistent with the signed commitment statement. If the commitment statement records a different planned end date or OTJ figure to the ILR, that is an audit finding regardless of which figure is correct.

Providers should run a data quality check across all August 2025 onwards starts to verify that planned end dates are consistent with OTJ hours and working patterns. Many MIS systems have not automatically applied the new calculation model — the data will need to be reviewed and corrected manually on a record-by-record basis for affected starts.

Gateway Timing Under the New Rules

The 8-month minimum creates a new risk at gateway. Providers who are used to planning gateway activities well in advance of the old 12-month endpoint now need to recalibrate. For a standard with a published minimum of 187 OTJ hours and a learner on standard 30-hour weeks, the minimum duration is approximately 6.3 months of OTJ delivery — which, with the 8-month floor, means the earliest gateway could be at 8 months.

Learners must not be presented at gateway before the minimum duration has elapsed and before the published OTJ hours have been delivered. Equally, learners should not be held significantly beyond gateway readiness without documented justification. Both premature gateway and excessive delay create compliance risk.

Review your gateway workflow to confirm that the trigger points are based on the published OTJ threshold and 8-month minimum for each standard, not a generic organisational default. See our guide on EPA readiness and gateway preparation for a detailed checklist.

How to Restructure Cohort Timelines

The new rules create an opportunity to deliver some standards faster for learners who are ready. For employers, this can mean a quicker return on their investment and a faster pathway to a qualified employee. For providers, it means potential improvements to completion rates and throughput without reducing quality.

To restructure cohort timelines effectively:

  • Map every active standard against its published minimum OTJ hours and the 8-month minimum.
  • Identify which standards currently have planned durations significantly above the minimum — these are candidates for timeline compression where learners and employers would benefit.
  • Recalculate planned end dates for new starts individually, based on working hours.
  • Update your commitment statement template to capture the OTJ hours calculation explicitly.
  • Brief your tutor and employer engagement teams so they understand why planned durations may now vary within the same cohort.
  • Check your progress review scheduling — if planned durations shorten, 12-weekly review intervals may need to be mapped more carefully to ensure the required number of reviews fits within the programme.
OTJ tracking in your platform: Accurate OTJ tracking is more important than ever now that hours are the fixed compliance anchor rather than a derivative of planned duration. TIQPlus provides real-time OTJ dashboards showing actual vs. planned hours per learner, automated alerts when learners fall behind the pace required to meet their published minimum, and audit-ready logs. See our OTJ hours guide for the full compliance picture.

Common Misconceptions to Avoid

Several misunderstandings about the new rules have been circulating in the sector. The most common ones to correct in your team:

  • "We can now start everyone on an 8-month plan." Not unless the published OTJ hours can be delivered in 8 months at that learner's working pattern. The 8-month minimum is a floor, not a target.
  • "OTJ is now 187 hours for everyone." 187 hours is the threshold figure sometimes cited; the actual published minimum varies by standard. Always check the specific standard's published hours.
  • "Part-time learners get an automatic extension." Automatic extensions have been removed. Plan the duration correctly at enrolment.
  • "Prior learning always reduces the minimum duration." Prior learning can reduce OTJ hours only with documented evidence from an initial assessment. It does not automatically reduce the 8-month minimum duration.
  • "We just need to update the ILR field." ILR changes without corresponding commitment statement updates create audit mismatches. Both documents must be consistent.
Funding Rules 2025/26 Minimum Duration Off-the-Job Training OTJ Hours ILR Reporting Programme Planning

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