Dr Magdalena Cajic-Seigneur (lay representative) For the v Mrs Jade Letts, Citation Ltd — 2022

The Claimant began work on 29 October 2018 as a finance assistant under an apprenticeship arrangement aimed at a Level 7 ACCA qualification. The Tribunal considered the written employment contract, the later Commitment Statement, and the governing apprenticeship legislation and case law to decide whether the arrangement was an approved English apprenticeship under the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 or a common law contract of apprenticeship.

The Tribunal found that the documentation did not create an approved English apprenticeship agreement under the 2009 Act. The contract of employment did not contain the apprenticeship-specific requirements, and the Commitment Statement, although it referred to the three-year apprenticeship, off-the-job training, and the end-point assessment, did not by itself create the necessary employment relationship. Reading the documents together, the Tribunal held that the Commitment Statement restricted termination more than an ordinary employment contract and was consistent with a common law apprenticeship rather than a contract terminable on ordinary notice.

The Tribunal therefore held that the arrangement was a common law contract of apprenticeship. Applying the authorities it cited on termination of apprenticeships, it concluded that redundancy did not lawfully justify ending the apprenticeship in this case because the Respondent’s business had not closed and there had been no fundamental change of the kind required to end such a contract. The Respondent’s COVID-related redundancy programme therefore did not meet the common law threshold for terminating the apprenticeship, so the termination breached the contract. The Tribunal did not determine remedy at this hearing and directed that remedy be decided separately.