What is it?

As part of an apprenticeship program, all apprentices must complete a 20% Off the Job (OTJ) log to demonstrate that they are spending at least 20% of their contracted working hours developing, learning, and enhancing new Knowledge, Skills, or Behaviours as set out in the relevant apprenticeship standard:


The 20% OTJ is time taken to learn, enhance, or develop the KSBs as set out in these standards. Please see the below for what constitutes 20% (which is also attached to this article) as well as another attachment showing some key Myths about OTJ for organisations. English and maths does not count towards the 20% off-the-job training. 



So what does the above mean, what counts towards OTJ?

Effectively, anything that follows the flowchart above which we will break down:


Has the individual begun their apprenticeship?

  • The work you’re doing to count towards OTJ has to be done after the launch of the apprenticeship, you can’t backdate before this. 
  • This does not mean you can't continue working on projects that started before Launch, just that whatever work you did before Launch, cannot be counted towards your OTJ.
  • This also means that you cannot log OTJ after gateway - OTJ must be completed before End Point Assessment. You also cannot log OTJ time while you are on a break in learning.


Is the activity directly relevant to the apprenticeship standard and Is the activity teaching new knowledge skills and behaviours?

  • Does the activity you are completing help you learn, develop, practice, enhance any of the KSBs set out in the standard? If you are improving, practicing, enhancing, developing any of the KSBs in the standard, then this is "directly relevant" to the apprenticeship standard and can be logged as OTJ. 
  • If the knowledge/skill you are applying does not relate to the apprenticeship KSBs, this does not count to your OTJ.
  • For example, if you look up the KSBs for your level and you see “Data Analysis – statistical methods” - then if you do some work that helps you learn, develop, or enhance your data analysis skills in this context, then you are improving skills that are directly relevant to the standard. 
  • Functional skills do not count towards OTJ.


Is the learning activity taking place within normal (contracted) working hours.

  • The work must be during your contracted working hours. You can’t log OTJ outside of these hours.


If you're unsure if your work counts towards OTJ, follow this checklist
Has the work occurred after my apprenticeship launch day?Yes
Does the work relate back to any of my apprenticeship KSBs (am I developing/improving my KSBs)?Yes
The work is NOT functional skills work?Yes
Did I do the work during my contracted working hours?Yes
If you tick all of these, it counts as OTJ!


A quick example:

  • If I am on my apprenticeship, I have recently learnt about “process mapping”. 
  • I then take part in a project or piece of work at my workplace (irrespective as to whether it is related to your apprenticeship project or just an internal project/piece of work).
  • During that project/work, I do some process mapping using some of the knowledge or skills I’ve developed from the training, then all of this time counts towards your OTJ as it directly relates to the “Process mapping & analysis” KSB.


Look up your KSBs here:

What should my current OTJ be and how do I log it?

You can always find your OTJ requirement on your project tracker or Onefile progress review. 


Onefile

If you are using Onefile, by the end of the programme, your OTJ should be at 20%. To see what your OTJ should roughly be as of today, you can work this out by look at the target progress on your Onefile account and dividing by 5:

In the above example, 51/5 is equal to 10.2%, therefore their OTJ on their timesheet should be circa 10.2%.


OneFile : Why hasn't the Off-The-Job percentage updated?


Smart Assessor

If you are using Smart Assessor, your OTJ should be at 100% by the end of the programme (100% of your 20% hours). You can also see your requirement by simply logging into Smart Assessor and checking the blue percentage value underneath your photo - this is the same as your OTJ requirement.