Kerrie-Jo O’Flynn is an Apprentice Manufacturing, Assembly, Integration and Testing (M.A.I.T) Technician at Oxford Space Systems, based at Harwell. Her role involves the assembly of deployable, mechatronic structures for satellites using novel materials and items, such as carbon fibre and various custom manufactured pieces.
Like many apprentices, K-Jo’s role has been furloughed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. K-Jo remains positive at this uncertain time and is using the time to get ahead on her college work, so that her apprenticeship can progress while she isn’t at work.
See K-Jo talking about her experience in this vlog:
K-Jo says: “The last couple of weeks and the ones to come have been very unusual! At the moment, my work place is mainly working from home with 2-3 people going into work now and then. However, in my job role, I cannot work from home unfortunately, so I have been put on the government furlough scheme.
"This whole pandemic has its slight perks I guess with the staying home part as I have been blasting through my college work! However, I do miss people from work, the daily routine and the fact I was learning something new every day. All I know for sure is when I return to work, everything will be 100% go-go-go with a lot of catching up to do with assemblies of the space hardware!”
What furlough means for apprentices
As part of the cross-government efforts to respond to the impact of COVID-19, the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) is implementing new measures, for the duration of the pandemic, to make it easier for apprenticeships to continue and complete in a different way if they need to.
HMRC guidance published on 4th April says: “Apprentices can be furloughed in the same way as other employees and they can continue to train whilst furloughed.” This measure enables apprentices to progress with their apprenticeship by continuing with their training while they aren’t at work. Specifically:
- furloughed apprentices can continue their ‘off the job’ apprenticeship training, as long as it does not provide services to, or generate revenue for, their employer
- furloughed apprentices can therefore continue their apprenticeship while furloughed
- training can take place in blocks while the apprentice isn’t at work
- where training is undertaken by furloughed workers, at the request of their employer, workers are entitled to be paid at least the NLW/NMW for this time. If the furlough payment of 80% does not meet the appropriate minimum wage for the time spent training, employers will need to pay the additional wages
