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Upgrade your team's professional toolkit, fast. 

Introducing Apprenticeship Units at Bournemouth and Poole College.

Your business thrives on momentum. When new opportunities arise, you need a team ready to capitalise on them immediately. Sometimes, you simply need a rapid injection of targeted expertise to keep your company moving forward.

Apprenticeship Units offer a highly focused approach to workforce development. These intensive training modules are designed exclusively to upskill your staff in a fraction of the traditional time.

What are Apprenticeship Units?

They are standalone, formally recognised modules. Content for Apprenticeship Units comes from the knowledge and skills from existing apprenticeship occupational standards “needed to address specific critical skills gaps”. Instead of undertaking a lengthy programme, you can select the precise skills your business requires today.

  • Accelerated delivery: Units take between one week and three months to complete, meaning we get straight to the point.
  • National accreditation: Your staff will gain portable, formally recognised occupational competence.
  • Flexible funding: You can use your Growth and Skills Levy contributions to fund these units, with no fixed cap on spending. If you are a smaller business that does not pay the levy, do not worry. You can still access these units, and the government will fully fund the training costs for staff aged 19+.
  • Stackable credits: Completed modules are credit-bearing. If your employee decides to pursue the full apprenticeship qualification at a later date, their completed units will count towards it.
How to fund it using your Growth and Skills Levy

Historically, you could only unlock the Growth and Skills Levy for full, long-term apprenticeship programmes. From next month, the rules change. The government is now allowing employers to direct those exact same levy funds into these short, agile Apprenticeship Units.

However, there is an important caveat to note. From this April, the expiry window for your unspent levy pot shrinks from 24 months down to just 12 months. The 'use it or lose it' reality has never been quite so pressing.

Targeted training for immediate impact

Our goal is to be the engine of the local economy. We have curated a selection of units designed specifically to meet the immediate technical requirements of employers in the region.

  • AI in Leadership:
    • AI strategy and opportunity.
    • AI adoption, procurement and governance.
    • AI delivery and organisational transformation.
  • Green Skills: 
    • Electric vehicle (EV) charging point installation and maintenance.
    • Solar PV installation and maintenance.

Why choose Bournemouth and Poole College?

To ensure these new qualifications deliver genuine value to industry, the government has limited the initial rollout to training providers with a proven history of educational excellence.

As the region’s largest apprenticeship provider, we offer a foundation of stability and expertise for your workforce development. We are proud to partner with a diverse range of local employers who trust us to deliver exceptional training for both new recruits and existing team members. By managing the administrative complexities and compliance, we enable you to cultivate a high-performing team through seamless, industry-standard training solutions.

Start upskilling your team today

The opportunity to rapidly upskill your team is here. With limited capacity across the region, forward-thinking businesses are already mapping their skills gaps and securing their places to get ahead.
Speak to our Business Development team today about what skills you need to register your interest in how Apprenticeship Units can support your workforce strategy.

Call: 01202 205560
Email: employers@bpc.ac.uk

Apprenticeship units will only be for employed learners aged 19 and over whose employer has “identified a need to upskill them quickly to meet business needs and remain competitive”. Apprenticeship Units will not be eligible for learners “seeking to start a new career or occupation”.

Unlike a traditional apprenticeship that spans two years, these units are intensive and brief. Depending on the specific module, the training lasts anywhere from a single week to three months. The focus is entirely on rapid upskilling, meaning your staff return to the business quickly, ready to apply their new knowledge.

It is not an informal certificate of attendance. Each unit is a formally accredited module extracted straight from a national apprenticeship standard. Your employee gains certified occupational competence in that specific skill, which is recognised across the industry.

That is the beauty of the modular system. Because these units are credit-bearing, any completed module acts as a solid building block. If your employee decides to pursue the full apprenticeship qualification in the future, they already have a head start with those credits safely banked.

Absolutely. While levy-paying businesses can use their funds to cover the costs, smaller employers are certainly not excluded. The government provides substantial co-investment to subsidise the training, meaning you can still access top-tier skills without bearing the full commercial cost.

No, you need to have a PAYE scheme to register for funding for Apprenticeship Units.

You can begin the process immediately. As Bournemouth and Poole College is one of the few approved providers locally, our allocation of places fills quickly. We strongly advise having a conversation with our Business Development team to map out your skills gaps and secure your spots.

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