What is Off-the-Job learning?
What is Off-the-Job (OTJ) learning?
Off-the-job learning is structured training or development activity that happens outside your normal job duties. It's designed to help you build new knowledge, skills, and behaviours required by the apprenticeship.
Think of it as time set aside to grow professionally beyond your day-to-day teaching or research.
How much do I need to do?
- You must spend at least 20% of your paid working hours on OTJ learning over the course of your apprenticeship.
- This roughly equates to 7 hours per week if you’re working full-time.
- Therefore, over the year, you will be required to meet an OTJ target of 362 hours.
What counts as OTJ learning?
To qualify, OTJ learning must be:
- Planned, structured, and relevant to your apprenticeship
- Separate from your usual work duties
- Ask yourself, “Is it new learning to me?” – if yes, it can be considered OTJ
Examples of OTJ learning:
|
Valid OTJ Activity |
Why It Counts |
|
Attending teaching & learning workshops |
Builds professional teaching skills |
|
Shadowing an experienced academic |
Helps develop academic behaviours and knowledge |
|
Reflective writing and journaling |
Encourages critical thinking and self-evaluation |
|
Academic CPD (e.g., curriculum design training) |
Develops programme-level teaching skills |
|
Peer observation (giving or receiving) |
Promotes reflective teaching practices |
|
Learning new software (e.g., VLE tools) |
Enhances digital capability |
|
Attending conferences/webinars |
Exposes you to sector-wide knowledge |
|
Reading research on pedagogy or HE policy |
Deepens academic expertise |
What doesn’t count?
|
Activity |
Why It Doesn’t Count |
|
Delivering your normal teaching |
It’s part of your day job |
|
Doing marking or admin |
Routine work, not developmental |
|
Meetings not focused on learning |
Not structured training or development |
How should I go about it?
- Plan ahead – Include OTJ activities in your weekly schedule.
- Log your hours – Keep your learning log* up to date (*you can find out more about this in the other section):
- What you did
- When you did it
- What you learned
- Reflect – Write short reflections to link activities to your development goals.
- Discuss with your mentor – They can help you identify suitable activities and keep on track.
Activity: Try the quiz below to see if you know what counts as OTJ learning.
All of your OTJ activities must be recorded and kept up to date in your learning log.
We will explore how we use this document and a second tracker (KSVB evidence tracker) in the next two sections.
