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Developed and maintained
by the NFCC


The NFCC have agreed with the government that fire services who wish to use the apprenticeship make sure the following are adhered to:

  1. Each fire service would conduct an assessment to ascertain if on-call apprenticeships are suitable for their organisation on a station by station basis
  2. Fire services should carry out an equality impact assessment to aid their decision regarding on-call apprenticeships
  3. Each fire service would use their own selection criteria for determining which recruits may be suitable to employ as a firefighter apprentice
  4. Apprentice on-call firefighters must be issued with both a contract of employment and apprenticeship agreement
  5. Apprentices to be issued with an individual learning plan 
  6. The fire service will need to agree with the on-call firefighter apprentice what level of cover they could provide. This information will assist in determining the length of the apprenticeship
  7. Only positive employment hours will count towards the required on and off the job training and development. On-Call availability hours will not be eligible.
  8. Employers should ensure that the manager, the apprentice and training provider review progress on a regular basis. This could be in the form of an annual performance review, monthly 1-2-1 with the manager, together with a quarterly meeting with the apprentices’ skills coach.  A record of the event should be prepared, setting out future training and development needs together with specific outcomes to be achieved in a given timescale.
  9. The apprenticeship for an on-call firefighter should be as set out in these guidance notes. Any deviation from this model would need to be agreed by the sector and the government.