Apprenticeship recruitment glossary

Recruitment services

Find an apprenticeship

The government’s official website for finding and applying for apprenticeships in England. Employers and training providers advertise vacancies on it through the apprenticeship service or the Recruitment API, and each advert is reviewed before it goes live.

Apprenticeship service

The government’s online account for employers and training providers in England. It is used to manage apprenticeship funding, give providers permissions, advertise vacancies and approve apprentice details.

Recruitment API

The Department for Education interface that lets an employer’s or training provider’s own system create apprenticeship adverts on Find an apprenticeship. It creates adverts only; changes and closures are made in the apprenticeship service.

National Apprenticeship Service (NAS)

The government service behind apprenticeship promotion, which still runs the apprenticeship service helpline. People often say “NAS” when they mean Find an apprenticeship and its interfaces.

Learner records

Learning Records Service (LRS)

The Department for Education service that issues Unique Learner Numbers and holds Personal Learning Records for learners in England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Registered schools, colleges and training providers use it to find a learner’s number and, with the learner’s privacy notice in place, view their record.

Unique Learner Number (ULN)

A 10-digit number issued by the Learning Records Service to learners aged 14 and over. A learner keeps it for life, and training providers record it in the Individualised Learner Record for apprentices.

Personal Learning Record (PLR)

An online record of a learner’s regulated qualifications and learning, drawn from awarding organisations, the Individualised Learner Record and school results. It covers qualifications from 2012 onwards in England, so it may not show everything a person has achieved.

Individualised Learner Record (ILR)

The data return that colleges and training providers send to the Department for Education about their learners and the learning they do. The Department uses it to fund providers and for official statistics, and its specification is published for each academic year.

UK Provider Reference Number (UKPRN)

An eight-digit number that identifies a learning provider on the UK Register of Learning Providers.

Learning Aim Reference Service (LARS)

The Department for Education’s database of funded learning aims and programmes, searched online through Find a learning aim. Providers record each aim’s LARS reference, and the apprenticeship standard code, in the Individualised Learner Record.

Apprenticeships and assessment

Apprenticeship standard

An employer-designed description of an occupation, the knowledge, skills and behaviours it needs, and how apprentices are assessed. Standards are approved and published by Skills England.

Foundation apprenticeship

A level 2 apprenticeship for young people aged 16 to 21, and up to 24 for some groups, giving entry-level skills for a job in a priority sector and a route to a further apprenticeship.

Off-the-job training

Training within the apprentice’s paid hours that is separate from their normal job. Each standard sets a minimum number of hours, and no apprenticeship may plan fewer than 187.

End-point assessment (EPA)

An independent assessment at the end of an apprenticeship that confirms the apprentice can do the job. It is being renamed “apprenticeship assessment” as assessment plans are revised.

End-point assessment organisation (EPAO)

An independent organisation a provider contracts to carry out end-point assessments. Revised plans call it an “assessment organisation”.

Initial assessment

The provider’s checks before an apprenticeship starts: eligibility, prior learning, support needs, and English and maths, confirming the person needs substantial new skills.

Recognition of prior learning

Reducing an apprenticeship’s content, duration and price to reflect what the apprentice already knows and can do.

Functional skills

Qualifications in English and maths, commonly used to meet apprenticeship English and maths requirements. Apprentices aged 16 to 18 study them unless they already hold suitable qualifications; for those aged 19 and over they are optional, by agreement with the employer.

Learning difficulties, disabilities and health problems (LLDD)

The Individualised Learner Record’s term for whether a learner considers they have a learning difficulty, disability or health problem. It is the learner’s own assessment; each condition is recorded by category, with one marked as primary.

Education, health and care plan (EHCP)

A plan setting out a young person’s special educational needs and the support they must receive. The Individualised Learner Record notes whether a learner has one, and for apprentices it affects eligibility for some funding and payments.

Apprenticeship agreement

A legally required agreement between employer and apprentice, setting out the occupation, the apprenticeship, its dates and the amount of off-the-job training.

Training plan

A document signed by the employer, the apprentice and the training provider, setting out the training to be delivered and how each will support the apprentice. It was previously called the commitment statement.

Funding and employers

Apprenticeship levy

A tax of 0.5% of an employer’s annual pay bill, paid only by employers whose pay bill is over £3 million. Levy payers receive the money back as funds in their apprenticeship service account to spend on apprenticeship training and assessment.

Levy-paying employer

An employer with an annual pay bill over £3 million, which pays the apprenticeship levy and funds apprenticeships from its apprenticeship service account.

Non-levy employer

An employer with an annual pay bill under £3 million. For apprenticeships starting from 1 August 2026, government pays all training and assessment costs, up to the funding band maximum, for apprentices aged 16 to 24, and 95% for older apprentices.

Co-investment

The share of training and assessment costs an employer pays when it does not pay the levy or has used its levy funds. For apprenticeships starting from 1 August 2026, it is nothing for apprentices aged 16 to 24, and 5% or 25% for those aged 25 and over, depending on the employer.

Total negotiated price (TNP)

The total price agreed between the employer and the provider for delivering an apprenticeship, recorded in the Individualised Learner Record as a training price and an end-point assessment price, excluding VAT.

Employer Data Service unique reference number (EDS URN)

A nine-digit employer reference from the Employer Data Service, recorded in the Individualised Learner Record. No new numbers have been issued since 1 April 2022; providers record 999999999 for employers without one.

Names used in enrola

Opportunity

enrola’s record of a vacancy. It holds the vacancy’s details, adverts, Applications and interviews, and each organisation starts with three types: Apprenticeship, Quick Register and Full cost course.

Application

enrola’s record of one applicant applying for one Opportunity, holding their answers, notes, activities, interviews and history.

Learner

enrola’s record of an enrolled apprentice, created from an Application with Create Learner record.

Supervisor

The member of staff assigned to an Application or Opportunity. Each Opportunity can have a default Supervisor, who is assigned to every Application made to it.

Posting Control

The part of each Opportunity that posts the vacancy to the job boards you choose.

Applicant workflow

The ordered list of statuses an Application moves through, set for each Opportunity type.

Ready for enrolment

The workflow status that confirms a successful applicant’s place and closes their other open Applications.

Request more info

An emailed link to a form that asks an applicant or employer for the fields you choose.

Applicant profile

The view of an applicant that you send to an employer, showing only the fields you choose.

Quick Register

The Opportunity type for a short sign-up form, used to build a pool of interested applicants.

Talent Pool

Where enrola keeps applicants who have agreed to be considered for other roles, until you move them onto a live Opportunity.

Deals board

A board of employer deals, each in a column for its step in your sales process, with its value and expected start.

Contact

A person at an Employer. Each Opportunity has its own Contact, who receives the employer emails and profiles for that vacancy.

Website iFrame

The copy-and-paste code that puts your enrola job board on your own website.

Sources

Last reviewed: 26 October 2026.

Last reviewed 29 October 2026