Plenty of people never apply for an apprenticeship, not because they couldn't do it, but because of maths, or writing, or exams, or a quiet fear of being found out. This page is for them. For you, maybe.
Nothing on this page is sent to TLC
Every learner, the whole learner
It is three promises about how we work, rather than a policy on a shelf.
Before we teach you anything, we take the time to understand how learning works for you, your strengths, your history with education, and anything that gets in the way.
You don't bend around the programme; the programme bends around you. How we explain things, how you show what you know, the pace, the format: all of it can flex.
Needs change. Life changes. What we put in place in week one gets revisited at every progress review, and you can tell us something new at any point, about anything.
These are the four things that stop good people signing up. Here's the truth about each one.
If you don't already have GCSE-level English and maths, you'll work towards Functional Skills alongside your apprenticeship. But not on day one, not in an exam hall, and never to catch you out. Most of our learners arrived feeling exactly this, and school maths is not the maths you'll do. Yours will come from your actual job: scaling a recipe, a medication calculation, a rota.
An apprenticeship assesses whether you can do the job. Writing is one way of showing that, it is not the only way. Some of the strongest evidence our learners produce is spoken, demonstrated or photographed, not written.
End-point assessment is a demonstration of things you will already have done hundreds of times, and you only go forward to it when you, your employer and your trainer all agree you are ready. Nobody gets pushed through a door they're not prepared for.
You cannot fail an apprenticeship in week one, or month one. It's a year or more of practice, with people whose job is to get you through. ‘Not yet’ is part of how learning works, it is not the end of anything. And if something does go wrong, there are resits, re-takes and recovery plans, not a trapdoor.
We don't ask “what support do you need?”: most people honestly don't know, and shouldn't have to. So instead: tap anything below that feels familiar, and we'll show you what we'd put in place.
Most apprentices recognise at least three of these. None of them is a reason not to start: every one is something we already know how to support.
You shouldn't have to diagnose yourself to get support. Tell us what your days are like: working out what will help is our job.
Nobody has ever asked you how you actually learn: school certainly didn't. These ten minutes do. Answer honestly and you'll walk away with something rare: a full report on how your own mind works, written for you, your trainer and your employer, so that from day one, everyone around you already gets you.
Your learning story is a living document, not a form we file away.
You bring your page to your first session. Your trainer reads it before deciding anything about how your programme will run, alongside your skills scan, which covers the job side.
Progress reviews return to it. Is the support working? Has anything changed? What you told us in week one is never the last word.
Something new comes up, at home, at work, in your head, you tell whoever you trust: your trainer, your mentor, our wellbeing team. The plan flexes.
Try the readiness check, not a test you pass or fail, just an honest look at your direction, your readiness and what would help. Or see everything else we put around our learners.
Apprenticeship readiness check How we support you