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The apprenticeship officially lasts for 24 months, but apprentices can actually complete in 15 months, if desired, regardless of the official length.

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For apprentices to be eligible for funding through the Apprenticeship Levy, there are two requirements you need to be aware of: 1) the apprenticeship training has to be a minimum of 12 months and 2) after the training is completed, there is an assessment period that typically lasts for another 3 months. This means that apprenticeships last for a minimum of 15 months.

Meanwhile, the “typical duration to gateway” (i.e. length of training, not including assessment) set by Skills England for the Software Developer apprenticeship is 24 months. However, this is just for guidance and can be amended at the request of the employer. This may sound confusing, but is designed to provide flexibility to both employer and apprentice.

By default, we set the length of our apprenticeships at 24 months, i.e. duration to gateway of 21 months and 3 months of assessment. This sets a maximum apprenticeship length which an employer will need to budget for.

In practice, employers and apprentices are often keen for the apprenticeship to be completed sooner. This has no effect on the pace of the training, it just means that the apprenticeship need not attend workshops in the latter part of the apprenticeship.

Let us know if you want to change the default apprenticeship length and we will amend our documentation accordingly, but in practice it is rarely necessary.

https://www.instituteforapprenticeships.org/apprenticeship-standards/st0116-v1-1