The current employment law situation means that EEF strongly recommends that its members use the EEF Apprenticeship Agreement. Other companies are strongly advised to seek legal guidance before recruiting an apprentice.
Age Discrimination
The following is extracted from a document produced by the Learning & Skills Council in August 2006.
The Employment Equality (Age) Regulations (the Regulations) come into force on 1 October 2006. The Regulations implement the age strand of the European Union Equal Treatment Directive 2000/78 (the Directive). One of the areas covered by the Regulations is vocational training.
For the purposes of the Regulations training includes a wide range of activities including all types of training which would help fit a person for employment, including practical work experience and vocational guidance.
Training Providers
The Regulations will mean that training providers will not be able to set age limits or age related criteria for vocational training or for benefits associated with the training.
It should be noted that the definition of training providers for the purpose of the Regulation dealing with vocational training does not include further education institutions. However a separate Regulation makes it unlawful for a further education institution to set age limits or apply age related criteria in determining who should be admitted to the institution.
A number of the training programmes funded by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC), which providers deliver, have age limits. Age limits set in relation to state funded schemes are outside the scope of the Directive and therefore the Regulations. The LSC will therefore continue to provide age related funding for training programmes.
Refusing access
Providers will not be able to refuse a learner access to training merely on the grounds that the learner, by virtue of his or her age, does not attract LSC funding unless this can be objectively justified. However the provider could require a learner who does not attract LSC funding to meet the costs of their training.
Training Providers and FE institutions will need to seek their own advice on the details of Regulations and further information can be found on the DTI website.
(Age Discrimination - Vocational Training, LSC August 2006)
Amended 2 February 2007