Course facts: AI and Automation Practitioner, Level 4

Qualification: Artificial intelligence (AI) and automation practitioner
Standard reference: ST1512, version 2.1 / LARS code 828
Level: Level 4 (equivalent to the first year of a degree)
Approved by: Skills England. Quality assured by Ofqual
Status: Approved for delivery, available for starts
Total duration: 18 months typical: 15 months on programme, then end point assessment
Time commitment: Around 7 hours a week, within paid working hours
Delivery: Live online. One four hour group session a month. No in person days
Funding band: Up to £18,000 per apprentice

01Who it is for

This is an apprenticeship, so the apprentice must be employed. It is not a course an individual can enrol on privately. It suits someone already working in or alongside operations, service delivery, customer support, finance or a change function, who has real processes around them that could be improved.

They must be in a role with genuine automation or process work to do, not a hypothetical project
They need access to the systems they will be working with, and permission to build
The employer names a workplace mentor and agrees to release around 7 hours a week
Existing experience counts: significant prior AI or automation experience is assessed at onboarding and the programme and funding adjusted accordingly

Typical job titles on this standard include process automation analyst, digital operations technician, business process support executive, digital productivity consultant and workflow solutions assistant.

02Entry requirements

Employment and eligibility checks at onboarding: residency, employment status, contracted hours and prior qualifications
English and maths must be completed in line with apprenticeship funding rules. Most Level 4 apprentices already hold GCSEs. Anyone without them is enrolled onto Functional Skills alongside the programme, and those hours are additional to the 420
Initial and diagnostic assessment for everyone, plus a digital and accessibility needs assessment so reasonable adjustments are in place before the first session

There is no formal academic entry requirement beyond the funding rules. The workplace suitability check matters more than prior qualifications.

03The time commitment, in detail

4 hours a month live online, as one group session with the tutor
Around 5 hours a week of the apprentice's own working time, applying it to a real process in their business
420 hours minimum of off the job training across the programme, which is the compliance minimum for this standard
All of it sits inside paid working hours. Not evenings, not weekends

Off the job training does not mean away from the desk. It means learning something new that relates to the standard, during working hours. Recording those hours is part of the apprentice's responsibility and is checked at every review.

04What happens, month by month

Thirteen taught sessions across fifteen months. Each one is applied to the apprentice's own workplace process that month, so the learning lands on a real problem rather than a case study.

Phase 01OrientationMonths 1 to 2

The Practitioner Role, and How AI and Automation Actually WorkThe occupation and their own role mapped to the 15 duties. Off-the-job training explained properly, so the log starts in week one.

Responsible AI: Law, Ethics and GovernanceUK GDPR in automated processes. Automated decision-making rights, and where the law says a human must stay involved.

Phase 02DiscoveryMonths 3 to 5

Process Discovery, Mapping and Opportunity AnalysisCheckpoint build 1As-is before to-be. Interviewing the people who do the work and cannot describe how they do it.

Data Foundations: Quality, Bias and ErrorProfiling a real dataset live. Preparation, conversion, and spotting the errors that break an automation later.

Designing for People: Requirements and Human-Centred DesignCheckpoint build 2Gathering requirements from people who do not know what they want. Writing user stories that survive contact with reality.

Phase 03BuildMonths 6 to 9

Working with AI Tools: Prompting and EvaluationSpecifying output precisely. Grounding answers in real documents, and scoring quality rather than judging by impression.

Building with Low-Code and No-Code AutomationCheckpoint build 3Choosing a platform for the organisational context. Building live, including letting things fail on purpose.

Connecting Systems: APIs, Integrations and AI ServicesEvent-driven patterns. Choosing an AI service, and connecting systems that were never designed to talk.

Testing, Assurance and DocumentationDesigning test cases that find real defects. Assessing viability, and making an honest go-live recommendation.

Phase 04EmbedMonths 10 to 11

Adoption, Enablement and ChangeResistance treated as information rather than obstruction. Engagement planning, and training your real users.

Governance, Security and Life After Go-LiveGovernance and accountability. Identifying vulnerabilities, and monitoring what happens once you stop watching.

Phase 05ValueMonths 12 to 13

Proving the Value: Productivity and Cost-BenefitBaseline, measure, attribute. Counting time properly and honestly, including what did not work.

Fairness at Scale and Portfolio ConsolidationAlgorithmic impact assessment end to end. Workforce equality monitoring, and consolidating the evidence.

Phase 06CompletionMonths 14 to 15

Consolidation and EPA practiceNo new teaching. A group consolidation session, portfolio finalised, and practice for the end-point assessment.

GatewayThe formal gate into end-point assessment, which is then carried out separately by the assessment organisation.

Checkpoint builds at months 3, 5 and 7 mean something working exists early. A monthly assignment is submitted through Aptem throughout, building into the portfolio.

05What the apprentice ends up with

The Level 4 qualification, a nationally recognised standard rather than a private certificate
A working automation live in the business, documented and handed over
A costed report setting out what it actually saved, measured against a baseline taken at the start
A portfolio of workplace evidence covering all 64 knowledge, skills and behaviours in the standard

06How it is assessed

Assessment happens after gateway and is carried out by an independent end point assessment organisation, not by the training provider or the tutor. It is expected to take the form of two assessment events:

A project report, with a 30 minute questioning session
A portfolio of workplace evidence, with a 60 minute professional discussion

The assessment organisation for this standard is being appointed. The two event model above is the expected format and the programme is built around it, but the final detail is confirmed at enrolment.

07What it costs the employer

Apprentice under 25

£0

Fully funded by the government, whatever the size of the business. Nothing for the employer to pay.

Apprentice 25 or over, no levy

The government funds 95%. The employer contributes the remaining 5%.

Levy payer (wage bill over £3 million)

Levy

Drawn from the levy pot the employer already pays into each month.

The funding band for this standard is up to £18,000. Unspent levy funds expire after 12 months. If a levy payer's pot for the year is already exhausted, co-investment for an apprentice aged 25 or over is 25% rather than 5%. There is no cost to the apprentice in any case.

08Where it leads

Progression routes recognised on the standard include data engineer, data scientist (integrated degree) and AI data specialist.

Check any of this yourself. The official government record for this standard is published by Skills England: skillsengland.education.gov.uk/apprenticeship-standards/st1512