Section 20 - Transfer of apprenticeships and traineeships

1. An application for approval to the transfer of an apprenticeship or traineeship may be made to the Commissioner by the prospective employer.
2. The Commissioner must deal with the application:
1. by approving the application, or
2. by dismissing the application, or
3. by referring the application to the Tribunal.
3. The Tribunal must deal with a referred application:
1. by approving the application, or
2. by dismissing the application.
4. Approval to the transfer is not to be given unless the Commissioner or Tribunal, as the case may be, is satisfied:
1. that the prospective employer has the ability to provide appropriate training in the relevant vocation, and
2. that the apprentice or trainee, and the apprentice's or trainee's existing employer, consent to the transfer of the apprenticeship or traineeship.
5. The Commissioner must send a notice to the apprentice's or trainee's existing employer requesting the employer to notify the Commissioner whether or not the employer consents to the transfer.
6. If the Commissioner does not receive any reply to such a request within 21 days after the date on which the notice was sent, the consent of the existing employer is taken to have been given.
7. If the application for transfer is approved, all rights and obligations conferred or imposed on an employer by the relevant training contract cease to be the rights and obligations of the existing employer and become the rights and obligations of the prospective employer.
8. Subsection (7) does not affect any rights or obligations in relation to matters arising before the transfer was approved, and any such rights and obligations remain the rights and obligations of the existing employer.