Provider support manual:

Recording Growth and Skills Short Course Offer

Contents

Growth and Skills Short Course Offer - Apprenticeship Units

Growth and Skills Short Course Offer consist of Apprenticeships Units and are flexible training courses up to 16 weeks. This guidance applies to new starts from 1 August 2026, all employed adults aged 19 or over at the start of the apprenticeship unit and who live in England.

Growth and Skills Offer (GSO) Apprenticeship Units are made up of the following elements, all of which must be recorded as follows:

• Funding model 39 – Growth and Skills Short Course Offer

• Programme type 34 – Growth and Skills Offer Apprenticeship Units

• Source of funding (SOF) 105 – Adult skills funded

Programme aim – every GSO Apprenticeship Unit must have a programme aim spanning across the entire duration of the programme. This aim must have a start date corresponding to when the apprenticeship unit starts and an end date which is the overall end date of the apprenticeship unit - when the learning has finished unless the learner withdraws.

The start date of the programme aim must never be later than the component aim. The programme aim must be recorded using:

• Learning Aim Reference: ZPROG001

• Aim Type 1 – Programme aim

A component learning aim – every GSO Apprenticeship Unit must have a single component learning aim to represent the learning taking place.

The component learning aim to represent the learning must be recorded as Aim Type 3 and these learning aims must be listed on Find a learning aim or the Learning Aim Reference Service (LARS) and providers must use learning aims marked with the following validity category:

• Validity Category: GROWTH_SKILLS_SHORT_COURSES

Examples of this type of component learning aim are:

• ZSC00001 Permanent Modular Building Assembly - Apprenticeship Unit

• ZSC00003 Mechanical Fitting and Assembly - Apprenticeship Unit

Apprenticeship unit 30% and onboarding milestone – Learning Delivery and Monitoring (LDM) 404

The Learning and Delivery Monitoring code (LDM) 404 Apprenticeship unit 30% and onboarding milestone - record on the programme aim when a training provider has completed all the learner’s onboarding and delivered 30% of the planned delivery hours of their Apprenticeship Unit.

Completing the GSO Apprenticeship Unit

Against the component learning aim (aim type 3), complete the Learning Actual End Date when the learning has taken place.

The programme aim (aim type 1) must be recorded as continuing (compstatus = 1) until the component learning aim (aim type 3) has been completed (compstatus = 2), or the learner withdraws from the programme (compstatus = 3).

Once the component learning aim is completed, record the programme aim as completed and record the same learning actual end date against the programme aim as the component learning aim.

The Outcome field of the component learning aim and programme aim must be updated accordingly.

Breaks in Learning and Withdrawals

The ILR does not record breaks in learning for GSO Apprenticeship Units.

If a learner has agreed a leave of absence with you, then the learning aim record should be left open. When the learner completes their learning aim, it is closed by the recording the learning actual end date.

If the learner withdraws from learning, then the learning aim and programme aim are closed.

Learning Support Funding

Providers can claim learning support funding using the Learning Delivery Funding and Monitoring Type - Learning Support Funding (LSF 1) and should be recorded on the programme aim.

Contract Reference Number, Agreement Identifier and the Apprenticeship Financial Record

The collection requirements under the Contract Reference Number have the Growth and Skills Offer (funding model 39) listed, this is not collected for this offer. However, the Agreement Identifier under Learner Employment Status will need to be returned for new starts from 1 August 2026.

The Apprenticeship Financial Record entity is not collected for Growth and Skills Short Course Offer - Apprenticeship Units (funding model 39, programme type 34). There is no requirement to return financial details in the ILR for Apprenticeship Units.