What section 15 does
Regulates work hours, overtime approval, leave and holidays.
Connected instrument: Rules 12 and 13
Finin2min practical reading
- Identify the apprentice category, trade, establishment jurisdiction and applicable portal before applying the provision.
- Separate statutory apprenticeship from internships, probation, traineeships and ordinary employment.
- Do not treat scheme reimbursement as a substitute for the employer’s underlying statutory obligations.
- Preserve the contract, approvals, portal trail and training evidence as one auditable file.
Employer control and evidence pack
- Executed/registered contract and portal acknowledgement
- Training plan, attendance/work diary and supervisor records
- Stipend bank/DBT evidence where relevant
- Adviser approval, correspondence or order where the section requires it
Statutory text extract
Extracted from the bundled official/consolidated source. For sections amended in 2026, the current overlay above controls over older consolidated wording.
15. Hours of work, overtime, leave and holidays.—1[(1) The weekly and daily hours of work of an
apprentice while undergoing practical training in a workplace shall be as determined by the employer
subject to the compliance with the training duration, if prescribed.]
(2) No apprentice shall be required or allowed to work overtime except with the approval of the
Apprenticeship Adviser who shall not grant such approval unless he is satisfied that such overtime is in
the interest of the training of the apprentice or in the public interest.
2
[(3) An apprentice shall be entitled to such leave and holidays as are observed in the establishment in
which he is undergoing training.]Compliance consequence
Failure should be tested against sections 30, 31 and 31A as in force from 22 June 2026, alongside contract termination/compensation consequences and any portal or scheme action.