Simulation is eligible off-the-job training for English apprenticeships. The 2026 to 2027 apprenticeship funding rules list “simulation exercises” among the forms of teaching of theory that count, provided the activity sits inside the practical period, happens in working hours, and teaches knowledge, skills and behaviours the standard requires. That makes an immersive scenario a legitimate part of an apprentice’s planned hours, not an extra you have to justify separately.
Key takeaway: The rules say “simulation exercises”, not “VR”. Build immersive content because it rehearses something an apprentice cannot safely or repeatedly practise on site, record it against the standard’s KSBs like any other delivery, and the funding question answers itself.
What the rules actually say
The current rules are the apprenticeship funding rules for 2026 to 2027, version 3, published 29 July 2026. Three provisions matter here.
| Provision | What it says | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Eligible off-the-job activity (para 83) | Teaching of theory includes “lectures, role playing, simulation exercises, online learning and manufacturer training” | Simulation is named, so an immersive scenario is a recognised delivery method |
| Hours floor (para 86.2) | “No programme must fall below 187 hours of evidenced delivery” | The old blanket 20% rule is gone; a published hours volume applies per standard |
| Minimum duration | The practical period must last at least eight months, from 1 August 2025 | Shorter programmes put more weight on delivery that scales |
One point of context: the rules are now administered through Skills England, which took on the functions of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education when IfATE was abolished in 2025. The standards, assessment plans and funding bands are unchanged by that move.
Two limits to hold on to. The rules name simulation generically, so do not tell a funding auditor that “VR is approved”, tell them which KSBs the scenario teaches and evidence the hours as you would for any taught session. And activity outside working hours, progress reviews, onboarding and on-programme testing remain ineligible however it is delivered.
If you are in Wales, none of the above governs you. Welsh apprenticeships are funded through Welsh Government and Medr, with their own rules. The pedagogy transfers, the compliance paragraphs do not.
Why providers are reaching for it
Two numbers frame the problem apprenticeship teams are actually solving.
Achievement rates have recovered but are still short of ambition: 65.4% in 2024/25, up 4.9 percentage points on the previous year, against a long-standing 67% target (DfE national achievement rates, published March 2026). Retention improved by a similar margin, which tells you the gains came from keeping people on programme rather than from assessment.
And the demand side has not softened. The Employer Skills Survey 2024 recorded 250,500 skill-shortage vacancies, 27% of all vacancies, and 1.26 million staff described as not fully proficient.
Against that, the practical constraint on vocational training is access: to the site, the machine, the salon chair, the ward, the hazard. Simulation is the only lever that adds repetitions without adding placements.
What to build first
The scenarios that earn their place for apprentices are the ones where real practice is rationed. In rough order of return:
- Pre-placement site induction. Hazard spotting, permits, PPE and escalation, completed before the apprentice arrives rather than in a portakabin on day one. See the workshop safety induction playbook for the build pattern.
- The expensive machine. Set-up, inspection and fault sequences on kit the college owns one of.
- The rare event. Spills, cut-outs, a customer complaint, a client disclosure, a deteriorating resident. Things everyone must handle and nobody can schedule.
- The conversation. Branching dialogue for care, retail, hospitality and health and social care apprenticeships, where the assessed behaviour is what the apprentice says next.
- End-point assessment rehearsal. Not the EPA itself, but a dry run under the same conditions.
What does not pay back: filming a tutor talking. If the content works as a video, make a video.
What it looks like when a provider builds its own
Merthyr Tydfil College built a construction safety induction and put it in front of apprentices. Their Learning and Digital Resource Coordinator describes it as taking them “from concept to live for students in under three weeks”, and the result as apprentices who “walk a site, spot hazards, and complete a full safety induction before they ever set foot on real scaffolding”, with the same approach now extending into plumbing and electrical.
Elsewhere in Welsh further education, Coleg y Cymoedd’s health and social care team has publicly described working with its technology enhanced learning colleagues to develop two immersive experiences for apprentices, covering children’s health and safety and dementia care, after a Taith-funded visit to Denmark. Their lecturer Rebecca Bennett put the rationale plainly: “Apprentices learn best when they can experience situations for themselves” (cymoedd.ac.uk). We have no involvement in that project and cite it because it is the clearest public example of the pattern: the tutors who teach the standard building the content, rather than commissioning it.
That pattern is the point. Vocational standards change, awarding requirements change, and an apprenticeship cohort is small. Content that only a supplier can edit will be out of date before the second cohort starts.
Devices, and the thing to avoid
Apprentices are rarely in one place. They are on site, in a salon, at a depot, in college one day a week. Any plan that depends on everyone being in the headset room on Tuesday will fail on logistics rather than on learning.
Deliver browser-first, on the phones and laptops they already carry, and treat headsets as a specific choice for specific scenarios rather than the default. The same scenario can run on both, so this is a publishing decision rather than a production one, as covered in do you need headsets for VR training.
A note on searching for this
If you are researching the field, search for “immersive” or “simulation” alongside “apprentices” rather than “VR”. In a UK apprenticeship context the abbreviation collides with vocational rehabilitation, and a second slice of results covers apprenticeships in the VR industry rather than VR used to train apprentices. It is a small thing that wastes an afternoon.
The short answer
Virtual reality training for apprentices is eligible off-the-job training in England, because the funding rules list simulation exercises as a form of teaching of theory, subject to the usual conditions on practical period, working hours and KSB relevance. Build it where real practice is rationed, deliver it on the devices apprentices already carry, and keep editing rights with the tutors who teach the standard.
Talk to us about an apprenticeship scenario, or see how colleges are approaching it in the UK college guide.