Jurisdiction(s):
United Kingdom

Related legal acts

Key definition

Apprentice definition

What does Apprentice mean? In legal practice, an apprentice is a worker engaged by an employer to learn and practise a trade or occupation through structured on-the-job training and off-the-job learning, while performing paid work. The term is used across employment and skills law. In England and Wales, the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act 2009 introduced the statutory apprenticeship agreement (a contract of employment with specified training). The common law contract of apprenticeship also remains; its primary purpose is training and it affords stronger protection, with dismissal generally limited to serious misconduct or frustration, and greater wrongful dismissal exposure if ended early. Scotland and Northern...

Scottish Apprenticeships: contracts, capacity, SDS scheme, employment protections, NMW and working time, termination, remedies, redundancy, levy, and contrasts with England

Published by a LexisNexis Employment expert

Practice notes

This Practice Note explores the legal issues involved in taking on an Apprentice in Scotland, setting out the context and key distinctions.

Introduction to apprenticeships in Scotland

The apprenticeship Contract has its roots in Scotland’s Middle Ages, where it served to control and often monopolise the craft or business carried on in certain trades. By the early nineteenth century, courts were already being asked to separate apprenticeship agreements from other, usually employment, contracts, and that inquiry has persisted ever since. Today, the Scottish Modern Apprenticeship system is markedly different and widespread. It is largely state backed, aiming to align skills with the needs of business and industry across sectors. Modern Apprentices learn in the workplace as well as through colleges and universities, combining practical experience with formal study. Training providers supervise and oversee the apprenticeship throughout. Contemporary arrangements are frequently tripartite, bringing together employer, apprentice and trainer in a single framework.

Legal framework for common law apprenticeships

An apprenticeship agreement, while it may include working for hire, is fundamentally a contract to instruct and to acquire a particular trade or handicraft. It has long been recognised that distinguishing an apprenticeship from other comparable agreements, including ordinary employment contracts, is often challenging...

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Russell Bradley

Westwater Advocates

Russell Bradley was admitted as an advocate on 1st June 2012. Prior to that, he was in private practice as a solicitor for over 20 years. In the latter 10 years, he worked exclusively in the employment field as partner and head of the Scottish employment team with the global law firm DLA Piper. His work covered the whole gamut of employment issues. He was accredited as a specialist in employment law by the Law Society of Scotland and has retained that exclusive focus on employment work in his years since coming to the Scottish Bar. In the four-year period from November 2020 he was a fee-paid employment judge in Scotland. He returned to practice in November 2024, resuming his rights to appear in the Scottish ET and EAT. His practice is primarily first instance in the employment tribunal where he is regularly and...

Web page updated on 21/05/2026

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