Drawn from interviews with employers, ESOL providers and apprenticeship providers, this guide has been designed to raise awareness of ways in which ESOL learners can benefit from and progress to employment as an apprentice. It also illustrates how a focus on meeting ESOL learners’ needs in the workplace can benefit employers and training providers.

This guide has been developed by Learning and Work Institute as part of a wider project, undertaken at the request of the Department for Education (DfE), to understand and address barriers to apprenticeships for those with English for Speakers of Other Language (ESOL) needs.

The project aimed to:

• establish how and to what extent providers facilitate the transition from ESOL learning to
  apprenticeships;
• identify current barriers to progression to apprenticeships for learners with ESOL needs;
• identify ways in which policy and practice could be improved, to enable more people with ESOL needs to access apprenticeships; and
• identify any current effective practice in supporting people with ESOL needs to progress into apprenticeships.