City's policy on when apprenticeship training needs to be subcontracted to another partner.
Scope
This policy covers the activity for which the University is funded by the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) for the provision of apprenticeship training.
Context
This policy is published as required by the ESFA’s funding rules, in accordance with which the University will operate at all times.
Principles
City, University of London is the university of Business, Practice and the Professions and has delivered apprenticeship courses since 2016. The university is committed to working with our employers to develop programs that meet the needs of the students and employers, through expert delivery of our programs.
The majority of apprenticeship training and assessment will be carried out by the University itself, acting in the capacity of lead training provider. There may be circumstances, however, in which some of the training needs to be subcontracted to another partner organisation.
Any such subcontracting arrangements will be agreed with employers in advance and will be clearly articulated in the employer’s Training Services Agreement, as well as the tripartite commitment statement. The University will lead the relationship with the employer at all times and will retain oversight and responsibility for the whole apprenticeship, including the actions of our delivery subcontractors.
In accordance with ESFA funding rules, as the lead training provider the University will always undertake a substantive portion of the delivery of any apprenticeship where a subcontracting arrangement is in place. For the purposes of subcontracting arrangements where the University is the lead training provider in an apprenticeship, the University is body governed by public law as defined by the Public Contracts Regulations 2015 .
The university also has obligations under out Procurement and Commercial contracting regulations, which establish obligations and procedures for levels of spend below those specified in PCR2015. The University will comply with the provisions of the regulations at all times.
The cost of subcontracting management, including quality monitoring and assurance is included within the overall price of delivery and forms part of our standard fees. This will be clearly set out in the Training Services Agreements which we have in place with our employer partners. These agreements will also make clear which aspects of the training will be delivered by the University and which will be delivered by our subcontractors.
The University undertakes to enter into a written agreement with its subcontractors and will ensure that second-level subcontracting does not take place. The University will obtain an annual report from an external auditor if the total apprenticeship subcontract value exceeds £100,000 in any one financial year.
The University will make biannual declarations to the ESFA to confirm its subcontracting arrangements and undertakes to update this declaration whenever such arrangements change.
Reasons for subcontracting
The University will only subcontract training where it is necessary to fill gaps in niche or expert provision.
Quality assurance and due diligence
All of the University’s programmes are subject to a rigorous Quality Assurance process, including collaborative provision with delivery subcontractors. The University’s Senate and Education Quality Committee are responsible for the development and oversight of the University's portfolio of programmes and collaborative provision, and the policy framework that underpins these developments.
With their oversight, potential subcontractors will be subject to due diligence processes to satisfy the University that they have the capacity and capability to deliver the training to the expected academic standards. We will only use subcontractors that are on the published Register of Apprenticeship Training Providers. We will also consider any relevant reports from organisations such as Ofsted, the Office for Students, and the Quality Assurance Agency.
The University will utilise internal and external expert advice to confirm the suitability of the content of the training to be delivered by subcontractors and will ensure that the curriculum is sufficient for apprentices to achieve the qualifications in question.
The University’s Apprenticeship Hub and participating academic departments, will ensure the subcontracted provision is monitored and reviewed to assure the quality and academic standards of the subcontracted provision and that it continues to meet the University’s and the Employer’s requirements. These requirements will be stated in the University’s written agreement with the subcontractor ensuring risk management due diligence work.
Policy review
This policy will be reviewed annually, to ensure that it continues to meet the relevant ESFA funding rules and regulations.
The policy will be published on the University’s website.
Last updated 29 July 2024
Please note that following our merger, the policies on our website are the previous City policies. All policies are subject to review and re-development as part of the integration within City St George’s, University of London.