ILR 2026 to 2027 specification changes for apprenticeship providers.

Journey’s apprenticeship ILR software prepares return-ready data from the connected learner record, so a specification change is a configuration check rather than a rebuild.

What is confirmed as of 21 September 2026

The Individualised Learner Record specification is published each year by the Department for Education (DfE) on the official submit-learner-data guidance service. As of this review, a 2026 to 2027 ILR specification is published alongside its data collection timetable, migration specification, validation rules and schema files, in the same format the service has used for prior years. Where this article cannot confirm the wording of a specific field or validation rule, it says so rather than guessing.

What usually changes between one collection year and the next

Year-on-year ILR specification changes tend to fall into a small number of categories: new or retired data fields reflecting policy changes (for example to apprenticeship funding, RPL recording or break-in-learning rules); updated validation rules that reject previously accepted combinations of values; changes to the collection timetable and return dates; and clarifications to existing guidance that do not change the schema but change how a field should be completed.

A provider’s MIS or apprenticeship management software should be updated to reflect the current specification before the first return of the year is prepared. Relying on the previous year’s field list is one of the more common sources of validation errors at R01.

How to check what changed, rather than assume

The specification, migration document and validation rules together show exactly what has changed between years — the migration document is written specifically to list differences from the prior specification. Providers should read that document directly rather than relying on a secondary summary, including this one, for the exact field-level detail that affects their submission.

• Read the current year’s migration specification for a field-by-field list of changes from the prior year.
• Check the data collection timetable for this year’s return dates — see our ILR return calendar for a working view of them.
• Confirm with your MIS or software supplier that validation rules have been updated before your first return of the year.
• Where a change affects funding-relevant fields, check it against the current apprenticeship funding rules as well as the ILR specification, since the two documents are meant to be read together.

Preparing your MIS and your team for the change

A specification change is not only a technical update. Staff completing ILR fields, tutors recording off-the-job hours, and assessors uploading evidence all rely on the same underlying data model, so a field or validation change can affect day-to-day recording, not only the year-end return. Providers using apprenticeship management software such as Journey should confirm with their supplier when the new specification has been applied, and whether any recording screens or exports have changed as a result, before their first return of the collection year.

Where a change affects a field a provider has historically completed a particular way — for example around recognition of prior learning, break-in-learning dates or funding source — it is worth checking that guidance specifically, since a validation change can silently reject data that passed validation under the previous specification. Building in a short review of the migration document as a fixed step at the start of each collection year, rather than only when a return fails validation, catches most of these changes before they cause a rejected submission.

None of this replaces reading the specification itself. This page is a starting point for a compliance or MIS team deciding how much of their own checking to do before the first return of the year, not a substitute for that checking.

Primary sources

• Department for Education, Individualised Learner Record (ILR) collection and specification hub — gov.uk/government/collections/individualised-learner-record-ilr (accessed 21 September 2026).
• Submit Learner Data service, ILR specification, migration specification, validation rules and data collection timetable, 2026 to 2027 — guidance.submit-learner-data.service.gov.uk (accessed 21 September 2026).
• Department for Education, Apprenticeship funding rules, for the funding fields the ILR return supports — gov.uk/guidance/apprenticeship-funding-rules (accessed 21 September 2026).

• Where is the official ILR 2026/27 specification published?

  On the DfE’s Submit Learner Data guidance service (guidance.submit-learner-data.service.gov.uk), alongside the migration specification, validation rules, schema and collection timetable for the relevant year.

• How do I find exactly what changed from last year’s ILR specification?

  Read the migration specification published alongside the current year’s ILR specification — it is written specifically to list field and validation changes from the prior year.

• Does a specification change affect funding, or only data collection?

  Both are possible. Some ILR changes only affect how data is recorded; others follow a change to the apprenticeship funding rules. Check both documents together when a change is funding-relevant.