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Earning while you learn is one of the great strengths of an apprenticeship. It is also the point where most learners have the most questions. This guide sets out the current rules and explains what many education employers actually pay in practice.
The apprentice rate of the National Minimum Wage applies if you are under 19, or 19 and over and in the first year of your apprenticeship. From April 2025 this rate is £7.55 an hour. Once you turn 19 and have completed the first year, you move to the standard National Minimum Wage or National Living Wage for your age.
For an apprentice in the first year working 37 hours a week, the minimum works out at around £14,530 a year before tax. In reality, very few of our education employers pay only the minimum.
Schools, multi-academy trusts, colleges and local authorities almost always pay above the apprentice minimum, and most use their existing support staff pay scales. As a rough guide, a Level 3 Teaching Assistant apprentice often sits in a support staff band around £20,000 to £24,000 a year full-time equivalent, term-time only. A Level 5 or Level 7 leadership apprentice typically continues on their substantive teacher or leader salary while training.
By law, off-the-job training happens in your paid working hours. That includes webinars, coaching sessions, module work and any workshops your NCE tutor delivers. Your employer cannot ask you to complete off-the-job training only in your own time.
If you think you are being underpaid or your off-the-job time is being squeezed, speak to your NCE Development Coach first. We work directly with your employer to put things right and, where needed, will support you to raise a formal query through the Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service (ACAS) or HMRC.
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