Trapped in an apprenticeship I couldn't graduate from - Now requesting backpay

[pcnlmao]

Hi all,

I was in what should have been a 4 year electrician apprenticeship, but actually ended up becoming 5 years and ~3 months. The pay structure is such that it increases every year upon passing exams and as a result of the delay I have been stuck on the 4th (final year) salary for a year and 3 months longer than I otherwise should have been. Difference between 4th-year-apprentice and fully-qualified electrician salary is approximately £6/hr and most weeks during this period I was working just over 50h/week, so the difference amounts to approximately £20k in lost salary as a result of this delay.

I had an end-point assessment at the end of the apprenticeship called an "AM2" which I passed, first time, in mid October.
After receiving the certificates and applying for the trade cards and (expeditiously) submitting all the relevant paperwork I was eventually put on the full salary at the beginning of January 2025. Full time employment is not guaranteed after apprenticeship completion but I was liked within the company and believe there was mutual desire for me to continue working there, so I was taken on without question.

My main issue however is with the events leading up to the end-point assessment.
Apprentices need to produce a portfolio before they are allowed to book their AM2; The portfolio evidences all the competencies I need to have as an electrician and means I would need to be moved to work sites and given tasks which allow me to demonstrate my skills. These opportunities were not made available to me during my final year mostly because the company did not win any suitable work for apprentices.

Depriving me of the ability to produce a portfolio left me trapped in an apprenticeship I could not graduate from and I was stuck in this position for well over a year, despite voicing my concerns and requesting to be moved to work sites where I could be put to work. For several months of my 4th year I was made to sit in the office compiling data sheets and doing dull administrative work which was in no way relevant to my role as an electrician, as there was no work taking place on site at that location and simply because I was good at working with computers. The alternative would have been sitting in the canteen with my colleagues which was also starting to get rather boring after the first couple months.

Any of the other jobs being run by my company also didn't have anything suitable for me to do, so despite repeatedly reaching out to different project managers etc, they couldn't move me for operational reasons or didn't see the point as the work taking place on their jobs were also not suitable for me.

Simulated work is not allowed in the portfolio so my employer could not have set me up in a test bay and asked me to wire something up, and without any real work being done it was impossible to produce anything for the portfolio. Simulated work was offered several times by my employer demonstrating their lack of understanding of the requirements of my training and their role as the training provider.

I believe I have acted in good faith at every stage, and tried to progress this apprenticeship as quickly as possible because after-all, the sooner I qualified the sooner I would be put onto full-time salary; I passed every exam first time with excellent grades, and tried to expedite the process as much as possible wherever possible by reaching out to project managers etc, only to get nowhere. I do not believe it should be the responsibility of the apprentice to organise their own apprenticeship and training, otherwise what else does the employer do? I believe this demonstrates the continual poor oversight from my employer.

I reached out to my employer regarding this, requesting the £20k back pay and to no surprise they refused; They cite my employment contract which states the apprenticeship term is "4 years or until completion". I understand that some apprentices may over-run the 4 year mark if they repeatedly fail exams or act slowly but that simply is not the case with me.

As a result of their refusal to even entertain the idea of being responsible for the delay I escalated it and now I have a grievance hearing in a couple weeks and was wondering how to tackle it? I am allowed to have a representative/co-worker there with me but I am not a member of a union and frankly I don't know what help I might need in this meeting.

Any advice on my next steps or probability of being able to recover some of these losses would be hugely appreciated.

Thank you!

[ULA]

I am struggling to understand how the company could have facilitated you producing the portfolio needed to the be able to do your AM2 assessment, if they did not have the work available. You state that you asked to be moved to alternative sites but the work was not suitable or not available.

In terms of your grievance you are going to need to demonstrate that there were things that the company could have done to support you completing the portfolio but that they did not for reasons that you will need to provide.

It is always helpful to have someone there, even if for moral support or even to take notes that you can refer to afterwards should you need to consider making an appeal.

[pcnlmao]

I am struggling to understand how the company could have facilitated you producing the portfolio needed to the be able to do your AM2 assessment, if they did not have the work available. You state that you asked to be moved to alternative sites but the work was not suitable or not available.

In terms of your grievance you are going to need to demonstrate that there were things that the company could have done to support you completing the portfolio but that they did not for reasons that you will need to provide.

It is always helpful to have someone there, even if for moral support or even to take notes that you can refer to afterwards should you need to consider making an appeal.

I was employed under a trade organisation called the JIB. This sets the standard for my learning and minimum pay for whichever role I am in. In the JIB handbook (guidelines for employers and employees alike) it states (Point 1.7, Page 187, latest JIB handbook) that "Best endeavours should be used to ensure the apprenticeship is completed within a 4 year period", in the context of responsibilities of the employer.

If the employer did not secure any suitable work for the apprentices to do then surely they have not fulfilled their basic obligations as a training provider?
Not only are they failing to meet the standard as laid out in the JIB handbook but also as an apprenticeship provider as per the "apprenticeships.gov.uk" website, which states:
"Your employer is responsible for: ...supporting your learning needs during your apprenticeship" which I don't believe they have done.

I don't see how someone could argue that the apprentices should have to bear such a substantial financial penalty for poor support and oversight from the company.

There are other apprentices in very similar positions to myself within the company, and I was wondering perhaps I could bring one of them in for my grievance hearing to corroborate this opinion?

I appreciate the guidance can be quite vague with wording like "Best endeavours" but none of the apprentices believe the effort from the company has even met this standard.

[HariSeldon]

I appreciate the guidance can be quite vague with wording like "Best endeavours" but none of the apprentices believe the effort from the company has even met this standard.

"Best endeavours" means the employer has to take all reasonable actions to achieve the stated goal.

Do you have evidence that the employer deliberately didn't win any of the work suitable for apprentices? If, for example, they didn't win the work because someone else was cheaper then expecting them to take on a loss-making job would not be considered reasonable.