Sponsoring overseas workers is a privilege, not a right. Is your organisation treating it that way?
The Challenge
The Skilled Worker route is the primary mechanism through which UK employers recruit from outside the UK, but holding a sponsor licence comes with significant ongoing obligations. UKVI compliance visits are unannounced. Licence suspension or revocation means your overseas workers lose the right to work immediately. Yet for many organisations, the HR teams managing sponsorship are working from incomplete knowledge, inherited processes, or guidance that hasn’t kept pace with Home Office rule changes.
The Solution
BFI’s in-house programme gives your HR, resourcing and compliance teams a thorough, practical grounding in non-UK employee visas, with a particular focus on the Skilled Worker route and sponsor licence management. We cover the Points Based System, Certificate of Sponsorship obligations, the conditions attached to different visa categories, and what good ongoing compliance looks like in day-to-day HR practice.
Course Overview
Why bring this training in-house?
- Compliance: Build a sponsor licence management framework that withstands unannounced UKVI visits and reduces the risk of enforcement action.
- Confidence: Give your HR team the knowledge to assign Certificates of Sponsorship correctly, manage sponsored workers’ conditions, and report changes to UKVI on time.
- Risk reduction: Identify and close the compliance gaps most likely to attract UKVI scrutiny, before a visit finds them.
- Strategic capability: Equip your organisation to use the international talent market effectively, within the rules, without fear of getting it wrong.
Learning objectives:
Built Around Your Organisation
Sponsor licence management looks very different depending on your sector, the volume and seniority of your sponsored workers, and how your HR function is structured. This programme is tailored to your specific sponsorship profile, whether you are a new licence holder getting to grips with the system, an established sponsor managing a large cohort of overseas workers, or an organisation preparing for a UKVI compliance visit.
In-house delivery gives your organisation:
- Content calibrated to your current sponsorship activity, your visa category mix, and the compliance challenges specific to your sector
- Space to work through your actual SMS processes, CoS assignment practices and reporting obligations confidentially
- The ability to surface areas where your current compliance framework may have gaps, and address them before a UKVI visit
A shared knowledge base across everyone in your organisation who touches the sponsorship process
Key training topics:
The programme is structured across five modules, adapted to your organisation’s current licence status, sponsored workforce size, and the visa routes most relevant to your hiring.
Module 1 The Points Based System and UK Visa Landscape, Routes, Eligibility and What Has Changed
Module 2 The Skilled Worker Route in Detail, Eligibility, Salary Thresholds, Conditions and Certificates of Sponsorship
Module 3 Sponsor Licence Obligations, Duties, Reporting, Record-Keeping and the Sponsor Management System
Module 4 Ongoing Compliance, Managing Sponsored Workers Day to Day and Preparing for a UKVI Visit
Module 5 Complex Situations and Case Studies, Switching Visa Categories, Dependants, Salary Changes, and Common Errors
By the end of this training your team will be able to:
- Explain the main UK visa routes for non-UK workers and the eligibility requirements for each
- Assign Certificates of Sponsorship correctly under the Skilled Worker route and understand the conditions attached
- Describe sponsor licence obligations, what must be reported to UKVI, what records must be kept, and when
- Navigate the Sponsor Management System (SMS) with confidence for core Level 1 and Level 2 user functions
- Identify the compliance gaps most likely to be found during a UKVI visit and address them proactively
- Handle the situations that arise most often in day-to-day sponsorship management, salary changes, job changes, absences, and switching visa categories
Who will benefit from attendance:
This programme is for everyone in your organisation with a role in sponsoring, managing or supporting non-UK workers, from those applying for a licence for the first time to experienced HR professionals who want to ensure their compliance practice is fully up to date.
This course is designed for:
- HR managers and HR business partners, who manage sponsored workers and want confidence that their day-to-day practices meet UKVI obligations.
- Resourcing and recruitment leads, who are increasingly sourcing internationally and need to understand what sponsorship involves before offering roles to overseas candidates.
- Employees new to sponsor licence responsibilities, including those taking on Level 1 or Level 2 user roles for the first time and who feel daunted by the scope of their obligations.
- HR professionals who are self-taught on sponsorship, who have inherited processes or learned on the job and want to ensure their knowledge is complete and current.
- Global mobility and immigration teams, who manage complex sponsored worker populations and want a structured refresher on the rules governing their most common visa categories.
- Compliance and legal professionals, who need to understand the regulatory framework governing sponsor licence holders as part of their wider employment law or compliance remit.
- Finance and payroll managers, who need to understand the salary threshold requirements, the interaction with pay reviews, and what changes trigger a reporting obligation.
This course is particularly valuable for organisations that are new to sponsorship, that have experienced staff turnover in roles with SMS access, or that are preparing for a UKVI compliance visit and want to ensure their processes are audit-ready.
Contact Details
Catherine Ouston,
Head of In-House Training
📥 teamtraining@bfi.co.uk
📞 +44(0)1983 861133
