Support for care experienced people taking apprenticeships

Apprenticeships are a hands-on route to gain professional experience and earn money at the same time, while building up a support network.

Being care experienced means you may have spent time:

• living with foster carers under local authority care
• in residential care, e.g. a children’s home
• looked after at home under a supervision order
• in kinship care with relatives or friends, either officially with a special guardianship order or informally without local authority support

Being care experienced means you may have had some disruption to your education. However, this doesn’t limit your job or study choice – we recommend researching apprenticeships as one of your options to find out whether they will suit you. Here, we cover funding, support networks, and more.

An apprenticeship is an opportunity to work and study at the same time. You spend most of your time doing on-the-job training and the rest working towards a nationally recognised qualification.

The qualification could be the equivalent to GCSEs, up to a master’s degree, depending on the apprenticeship level you start at. As an apprentice, you're paid a salary and get a holiday allowance, just like an employee. 

You spend most of your time at work, and 20% of your time studying with a training provider, university or college.

As an apprentice, you’re not entitled to student accommodation, although it’s provided in rare circumstances. This means you’ll have to find your own accommodation. You might want to take a look at our accommodation advice for apprentices.

If you’re in local authority housing and are moving out of your local area, this may impact your housing entitlement. If you are planning to live with friends or relatives as part of kinship care, you may need to consider how this will impact any benefits they or you currently receive.

If you’re not planning to move out of local authority housing, you might also want to think about travel time to and from work and your training provider. Before making any decisions, you should speak to your personal adviser or local authority.

Deciding if, and when, to talk about your background is your choice and it’s up to you who you share the information with. For example, you may want to tell a manager or a tutor if you feel comfortable, in case you feel you may need extra support. However, there is no pressure to disclose this information if you do not want to or feel comfortable doing so. 

It’s important to have a good support network around you to help you through working and studying.

• Work: Lots of employers have social events you can get involved with, like sports teams and activities outside of work or at lunchtime, as well as professional networking opportunities. This varies depending on which employer you go to and their size. You might want to ask about this at the end of your apprenticeship interview. For example:
  • 'Do you have any social clubs that apprentices can get involved in?'
  • 'What is the culture like in the office?'

• Study: If you’re studying for a degree apprenticeship, or a graduate apprenticeship in Scotland, most universities have hundreds of networks and societies you can join, both generally around interests and hobbies, and they may have more specific networks for care experienced students. For example, some universities have well-being groups and support groups. You can find out more on the provider’s website, or by contacting the Students’ Union.

  It’s worth understanding how frequently these groups meet and how. For example, if your apprenticeship structure means you’re on campus for a certain day each week, will that group fit around you?

If you need more support and advice about your next steps as a care leaver, or anything covered above, you may want to contact an independent body for help. Some options include:

England

• Become
• Coram Voice

Northern Ireland

• Voice of Young People in Care (Voypic)

Scotland

• Who Cares? Scotland

Wales

• CLASS Cymru