This year however, focus has shifted from a concern about the number of apprenticeship s tarts to their c hanging type. The data indicates that a growing proportion of apprenticeships are be ing taken at higher levels, for instance in 2017/18 12.8% of starts were at Level 4 or above, compared with 5.3% in 2015/16. In and of itself this shouldn’t present a problem, especially in an employerled system which is designed to allow organisations to respond dynamically to their changing skills needs. However, of the 375,800 starts in 2017/18, only 44% were on the new employer-designed standards and herein lies quite a considerable problem. Given that Government has committed to no longer fund apprenticeship starts on frameworks after 31 July 2020 and recent National Audit Office findings suggest that “the average cost of training an apprentice under the new standards is around double what was originally expected,” the apprenticeship system is likely to become much more expensive to deliver. Whatever policy solution the Department for Education and HM Treasury arrive at, if the Apprenticeships system is to be considered truly “employed-led,” then industry must not be presented with the outcome as a fait accompli. It must work equally for employers and Government, otherwise we risk returning to a system of centrally mandated qualifications rather than those that employers need. At a time w hen Levy paying employers are accessing only 9 % of almost £2.2bn of total Levy funds, Government certainly has an unenviable task before it.
Jamie Hilder, Co-Editor Jamie Hilder is Queen Mary University of London’s Degree Apprenticeship Manager. He looks after the University’s own internal levy as an employer, whilst also coordinating institutional Degree Apprenticeship activity as a training provider to industry. Jamie develops new and existing Degree Apprenticeship programmes and leads the account management function within the organisation.
Sally Everist, Co-Editor
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Sally Everist runs The Good Schools Guide: Careers. As director of the GSGC, her role is to inform parents about the options that are available to their children as they leave schools and move into the workplace. The GSGC are advocates for Apprenticeships seeing them as an exciting alternative to other formal qualifications and ideal for many young people who are more than ready to enter the workplace at 18 but still wish to gain either a degree or another recognised, transferable qualification.