The Training & Learning Company — the regulated apprenticeship provider behind the programmes.
TLC is the apprenticeship provider that delivers Marco’s programmes as nationally recognised UK apprenticeships. They are an Ofsted-rated provider with two decades of regulated operations, and they handle every element of delivery, assessment, and funding flow that an apprenticeship requires.
Grade 2 · Good
Ofsted rating
20+ years
Apprenticeship operations
ESFA
Registered training provider
Why this partnership matters.
The Academy’s programmes — the Collection, the standard, the evening with Marco — could have stayed where they were: behind the Academy’s own walls, taught at small scale to chefs who could afford the time and the price. The partnership with TLC is what carries them out into the country.
When the Academy was looking for a delivery partner that could carry this work to the scale this work needed, TLC was the obvious choice. They are an established, regulated, Ofsted-rated apprenticeship provider with an existing footprint across the largest care, hospitality, and catering operators in the country. They have the infrastructure to deliver an apprenticeship to a single chef in a single kitchen, or to two hundred chefs across forty sites, to the same standard either way.
But infrastructure is the easy part. The Academy chose TLC because the values they operate by — patience with the learner, refusal to lower the standard, the conviction that the trade matters — are the values Marco built the Academy on. The partnership works because both sides agree on what is non-negotiable.
What that produces is something that did not previously exist: a Marco Pierre White-authored chef apprenticeship, fundable through the apprenticeship levy, available to any UK employer that can release a chef onto a regulated programme. The Collection in the chef’s hands. The Academy’s standard in the curriculum. TLC’s trainers in the kitchen. And, for those who reach Mastery, an evening cooking with Marco.
It is the partnership that makes the rest of it real. Without TLC, the Collection is a publishing project. With TLC, it is a national training programme.
Who they are.
The Training & Learning Company is one of the longer-established apprenticeship providers in the UK. They are registered with the Education & Skills Funding Agency, inspected by Ofsted, and authorised to deliver apprenticeship standards across hospitality, catering, business, and operations.
The Academy partnered with TLC because the work that Marco wanted to do — training the next generation of chefs in the British care kitchen — is fundable through the UK apprenticeship system, and that system requires a registered provider to deliver it. TLC is that provider. They handle the regulated delivery so that the Academy can focus on the curriculum, the Collection, and Marco’s teaching.
Who they deliver for.
TLC delivers regulated apprenticeships at scale for some of the largest and best-known employers in the United Kingdom — across care, contract catering, hospitality, retail, and the public sector.
What they deliver, on Marco’s programmes.
For each apprentice on a Marco Pierre White programme, TLC handles the complete regulated delivery — enrolment and initial assessment, allocation of a vocational trainer, scheduled face-to-face and online sessions, quarterly progress reviews with apprentice and employer, gateway, and the End-Point Assessment that awards the qualification.
TLC purchases the Marco Pierre White Learning Collection from the Academy and includes the relevant volumes as part of the apprenticeship the apprentice receives. For apprentices on the Mastery (Level 4) programme, TLC additionally purchases the evening with Marco. The educational substance is the Academy’s; the regulated delivery infrastructure is TLC’s.
What hosting an apprentice requires of a kitchen.
An apprenticeship is a regulated programme. It places certain practical obligations on the employer — protected learning time, a workplace mentor, kitchen access for trainer visits, engagement at progress reviews. Most established kitchens already operate at this standard; for some, it is a small recalibration of how training time is recorded and protected.
What the workplace provides
Six hours per week of protected off-the-job learning time, on the rota, paid — this is a regulatory minimum, not optional. A workplace mentor — typically a senior or head chef — to support the apprentice between trainer visits. Kitchen access for the TLC trainer’s scheduled observations and reviews. Engagement at quarterly progress reviews, attended by apprentice, trainer, and a representative from the employer.
What the employer receives
A nationally recognised, externally assessed qualified chef at programme end — and a chef formally Accredited by Marco Pierre White at the relevant tier (Foundation, Development, or Mastery). The Marco Pierre White Learning Collection issued to the apprentice and kept for life. For apprentices on the Mastery programme, an evening with Marco. Workforce-development evidence aligned to CQC’s Well-led and Effective assessment domains. And, by the structure of the funding mechanism, an apprentice committed to the organisation for the twelve to eighteen months of the programme.
Delivery at scale
At scale.
There is no minimum cohort. Every apprentice receives the full programme. For organisations enrolling at scale, additional inclusions become available — designed for the multi-site care groups, hotel operators, and contract caterers who carry the work into many kitchens at once.
Standard
1+
Any cohort size
- The Learning Collection in every chef’s hands, kept for life
- Marco on film throughout the programme
- Audience with Marco at the teaching kitchen (Mastery only)
- Regulated TLC delivery and trainer support across your sites
- Standard cohort intake windows
At fifty
50+
Cohort additions
Everything at the 1+ tier, plus:
- A dedicated full-time TLC trainer assigned to your organisation
- Audience with Marco becomes a closed session for your cohort, addressing your homes specifically
- Cohort intake schedule aligned to your operational calendar
At a hundred
100+
Partnership tier
Everything at the 50+ tier, plus:
- Marco corporate appearances at your senior leadership events and conferences
- Bespoke Marco video content — training, recruitment, internal communications
- A named Academy principal as your strategic partner across the engagement
How the apprenticeship is funded.
UK apprenticeships are funded through the apprenticeship levy — a payroll tax that employers with annual pay bills above £3 million already pay into HMRC. Levy-paying employers can use these funds to pay for the regulated training and assessment of their apprentices, contracted directly with a registered training provider.
For employers below the levy threshold, the government co-invests 95% of the cost of the apprenticeship; the employer contributes the remaining 5%.
Employer enrols apprentice
Employer signs the apprenticeship service agreement with TLC and nominates the apprentice.
Funds flow to TLC
Levy funds (or government co-investment for non-levy employers) flow from the employer’s digital apprenticeship account to TLC across the duration of the programme.
TLC delivers the apprenticeship
TLC delivers the regulated programme — including the Marco Pierre White Learning Collection and (for Mastery apprentices) the evening with Marco, all purchased from the Academy as part of the programme content.
There is no separate Academy fee for the employer. The apprenticeship the chef undertakes is one integrated programme, contracted between employer and TLC, funded through the apprenticeship system in the standard way.
More about TLC.
For full information about The Training & Learning Company — their history, their full range of apprenticeship standards, and how to engage them directly — visit their website.
Visit TLC ▸