Built by an apprentice, for apprentices.
Apprentice Agency is one person: me, Ahsan Malik — a degree apprentice in the defence sector. I built the Apprentice Audit around what apprenticeships look like from the inside: what makes an apprentice grow into their role, and what makes them quietly disengage.
The people who design apprenticeship programmes almost never experience them. I do, every day. That is the perspective the audit is built on — and the reason it asks the questions that surveys and compliance checks miss.
Why burnout is the target
Burnout is the quiet way an apprenticeship fails. An apprentice who is overloaded, under-supported, or afraid to raise a concern does not usually resign that week. They disengage first — and by the time the problem is visible in a resignation letter, it has been building for months.
That is why the audit treats workload, wellbeing and support as one of its four aspects, and why every interview is confidential. The earliest signals of burnout only surface when it is safe to describe them — and catching them early is the difference between an adjustment and a departure.
How I work
Independent, not for sale
The ARC cannot be bought. Every programme is scored against the same defined, research-backed criteria, and a certification that everyone passes is worth nothing — so not everyone passes.
Confidential by design
No individual response is ever shared with the client. Apprentices speak without managers, seniors, or HR present, and they are told exactly how their answers will be protected before they say a word.
Judged by a person
No response is graded by AI. Reading what an apprentice actually said — and noticing what they avoided saying — takes human judgement, and every conclusion in the report is built on it.