APPRENTICESHIP CONTINUITY PLAN

Purpose

This Plan is to consider those incidents which may have a significant impact on the operation and continuation of our training and apprenticeship provision and is a critical component of our emergency management toolkit. It promotes the continuation of teaching and learning despite extreme circumstances which interrupt normal attendance for one or more apprentices. This policy will be reviewed at least once per year by SMT and approved by Governance board. 

Scope

The types of major or large-scale incidents which should be considered significant include but are not limited to:

  • Loss or absence of key staff
  • Fire
  • Flood
  • Explosion
  • Serious adverse weather condition
  • Vandalism
  • Sabotage
  • Theft
  • Loss of confidential information/data protection issue/loss of IT/MIS
  • Extortion
  • Serious accident
  • Serious assault
  • Armed or dangerous intruder
  • Bomb threat
  • Pandemic
  • Notifiable disease

These incidents could be due to natural causes, such as severe weather, while in other cases, equipment failure, progressive deterioration or human error may be the cause. They have the potential to lead to the following losses, which are likely to have a major impact on the operation of Cambridge Professional Academy Ltd.

Loss of:

  • Control
  • Expertise
  • Buildings
  • Equipment
  • Facilities
  • Data
  • Personnel
  • Reputation
  • Funding

Cambridge Professional Academy Ltd.’s Business Continuity Plan ensures that there are limited and ideally no disruptions to the provision of our apprenticeship or qualification training and have set up the following arrangements to minimise the effects of a disaster or disruption and to bring Cambridge Professional Academy Ltd.’s apprenticeship delivery and other training schedules back into full operation with minimal disruption.

Communication channels

Cambridge Professional Academy Ltd. can contact our apprentices, apprenticeship delivery staff, learners, employers and other stakeholders via the following methods:

  • Refinery messages
  • Email - work and personal in most cases
  • Telephone
  • Teams
  • Our designated Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook groups.

We also have the employer contact details for each apprentice enrolled with data held off-site ensuring that this can be accessed from anywhere by the appropriate team members.

We use SharePoint fronted by Teams sites for internal, organisational collaboration and storing of relevant programme data which is also backed up every 24-hours and can be accessed remotely as well as on-site.

Continuity of Learning

Apprentices and Learners may not have access to the Internet, tech equipment, phone lines, TV or radio at all or for a period of time during a prolonged closure or absence. Therefore, it is important to offer a variety of methods of distance learning. Cambridge Professional Academy Ltd. will abide by the Disability Act and ensure materials will be provided in alternative formats, when necessary. 

Alternative Operating Venues

As well as our own training venue in Fen Ditton, Cambridge. Our delivery staff train apprentices and other learners from the following partner venues:

Apprentice & Qualification delivery locations

  • London – Sutherland Labs https://www.sutherlandlabs.com/
  • Manchester – Pendulum Hotel and Conference Centre https://www.pendulumhotel.co.uk/

Qualification only delivery locations

  • Jersey – Highlands College https://www.highlands.ac.uk/
  • Leeds – Weetwood Hall Hotel https://www.weetwood.co.uk/
  • Guilford – Guilford Institute https://www.guildford-institute.org.uk/
  • Birmingham – Priory Rooms https://www.theprioryrooms.co.uk/

We have used the above venues for a long time and have a good working relationship with all of them. We would be able to organise training facilities with these partners at short notice if circumstances forced changes. We have a good selection of venues across the country meaning that apprentices and learners based in the north of the country have the choice of two venues and the same is true of the south while we have one Midlands based partner venue.

All delivery locations have been selected for their ease of access by a range of methods including by car or a range of public transport including bus, train, and in some cases tram.

With our continued use of Teams our delivery staff can run all of our workshops online as well as in a blended format with students being physically present in the classroom while others dial into the same session remotely. Operational and apprentice/learner support staff can also work remotely using our cloud based systems meaning the apprentices will benefit from both learning delivery and support services in the event of a significant disruptive event.

Extra Travel Costs

Where it is the fault of Cambridge Professional Academy Ltd. , we will calculate the additional travel cost involved and arrange reimburse apprentices on a case-by-case basis. Where it due to factors beyond our control we will agree a resolution with Employers on behalf of their Apprentices. In the instances where Cambridge Professional Academy Ltd. agree to pay travel costs these will not be met out of apprenticeship funding, in line with the ESFA's Funding Rules.

Back-Up of Systems & Data

Apprentice and Learner Records

Our own, Microsoft Dynamics, operating system is a cloud based system and all data is stored securely using Microsoft Azure. We pay for addition Recovery services through Azure Backup. Backup of data is real-time so any disruption to our main Cambridge site would not result in any loss of data. In any event apprentices would not lose access to learning resources and apprentice portfolios would remain accessible.

We use SharePoint for organisational collaboration and storing of relevant programme data which is also backed up every 24-hours.

The learning delivery systems we use for apprentices and other learners are owned by Onefile, Skills Forward, NCFE and Microsoft.

Onefile

  • Onefile back-up Policy - https://onefile.co.uk/customer-data-backup-policy/
  • Onefile Information Security Policy - https://onefile.co.uk/information-security-policy/

We are advised by this policy that the maximum amount of downtime our students would have to tolerate would be 30 minutes before they could access their apprenticeship portfolios. 

NCFE and Skills Forward (fully owned by NCFE)

For those students who need to the learning resources to complete their level 2 maths and English qualifications alongside their apprenticeship. All data is stored within the AWS (Amazon) Database. It is backed up every 15 minutes and then a full back up is completed every evening and stored in different storage servers. Learners would be able to access their learning resources and any completed work would be saved.

ACE360

Apprentice data and EPA portfolios are submitted to most of our partner EPAOs through this platform. This platform is backed-up incrementally and a full back-up performed every evening.

Along with the service level agreements offered by our partner service providers, the students would have limited or no interruption to their access to learning resources/materials and apprentice portfolios would remain accessible. The SLA offered by Microsoft is that they guarantee 99.99% availability of the backup and restore functionality of the Azure Backup service. SLA for Azure Backup | Microsoft Azure

Support for Learners where delivery can no longer take place

In the unfortunate event that we are no longer able to deliver apprenticeship training, we would engage with the ESFA and undertake research using the finding an apprenticeship training provider tool. We would work with our ESFA account manager to support apprentices with a smooth transition to another apprenticeship training provider. 

Emergency contacts

In case of a significant incident emergency, various contact details are available in the apprenticeship induction material, on the resources section on Onefile and on Cambridge Professional Academy Ltd.’s website www.professionalacademy.com

Contacts:

  • Emergency Services 999
  • Non-Emergency Services 101
  • Cambridge Professional Academy Ltd.’s main desk: 01223 365 505
  • Ofsted service desk 0300 123 1231 Email: enquiries@ofsted.gov.uk
  • ESFA Service desk 0370 2670001 Email: SDE.servicedesk@education.go.uk • IfATE Service Desk Email : enquiries.ifa@education.go.uk
  • Open Awards Service desk 0151 494 2072 Email: enquiries@openawards.org.uk
  • CIM – 01628 427500
  • CMI – 0161 826 4644
  • ISM – 020 3167 4790
  • ILM – 01543 266867
  • NCFE (functional Skills) - 0191 239 8000 Email: customersupport@ncfe.org.uk
  • EPAOs
    • 1st for EPA (Marketing & Digital Marketing Apprenticeships) – 01642 205 207
    • CIM (Marketing Apprenticeships) – 01628 427 500
    • National EPA (Management Apprenticeships) – 01925 931 684
    • DSW (Sales Apprenticeships) – 01302 760 008

Appendix 1 contains alternate contact details for key personnel for use when necessary including personal email and telephone numbers for internal use.

Key Roles and Responsibilities

Key emergency contacts and functional responsibilities (these include staff responsible for managing any crisis between the centre and the apprentice. The ESFA will be informed of any break in learning.)

Martin Hutchins – Managing Director

  • Overall responsibility for the continuity of training
  • Incident Officer
  • Chair Crisis Team meetings
  • Co-ordination of the response
  • Allocate resources
  • Responsible for external liaison
  • Be prepared to answer questions from the media

Hazel Lott-Canning–Head of Operations

  • Responsibility for managing disruption in the provision of administrative services, learning and assessment arrangements and physical premises 

  • Meet and greet emergency services as they arrive, with a floor plan of the building if necessary 

  • Ensure all significant occurrences and decisions are recorded, together with reasons for decisions made 

  • Support and train all staff on the use of continuity learning systems and the implementation of this policy 

  • Agree key information to be given to apprentices by tutors and mentors 

  • Responsibility for dealing with issues associated with learners’ apprenticeship training and timely progression 

  • Liaise with Prime Funding organisations (where appropriate) 

  • Liaise with partner providers, end point assessment organisations and Awarding Bodies (where appropriate) 

  • Responsible for deciding whether or not staff and apprentices should be sent home 

  • Responsibility for dealing with issues relating to apprentices’ work placement and the ongoing checks of insurance and health and safety 

  • Liaise with employers 

  • Follow up communication 

  • Responsibility for dealing with issues relating to personal and pastoral support 

Philip Knowles – Head of Learning

  • Responsible for ensuring the apprenticeship learning content is appropriate for face to face, remote and or blended learning as appropriate. 

  • Responsible for instructional design, course design and plans for support to be aligned with the skill level of age groups and the level of apprenticeship being studied 

  • Liaise with delivery staff to ensure appropriate understanding of how to deliver the learning content in the event that normal delivery is compromised. 

APPENDIX 1

Name Position Telephone Email
Martin Hutchins Managing Director 07775 532273 martin@laurell.co.uk
Hazel Lott-Canning Head of Operations  07714 519385 hlott73@yahoo.co.uk 
Philip Knowles  Head of Learning 07976 839764 pmknowles@outlook.com