The Department for Education (DfE) has updated its guidance for employers on accessing recruitment APIs, with the latest update occurring today, 31 July 2026. These Application Programming Interfaces (APIs) enable applications to share information and data.
Employers can utilise two specific APIs. The Recruitment API allows for the creation of adverts on the 'Find an apprenticeship' service directly from an employer's own systems. Additionally, the Display adverts API facilitates showing adverts from 'Find an apprenticeship' on an employer's own websites.
To use these APIs, employers will need someone with technical knowledge, such as a software developer, to connect their systems. Developers will require API keys, which grant permission to connect to the API on the employer's behalf. Account owners can access these API keys.
The DfE has also added a new section on privacy and data protection, noting that the use of data when using the apprenticeship service APIs may be covered by the DfE privacy notice for stakeholders.