‘Levy-Land’: time for some honesty

A snap election, the manifestos are out and the race to a post-Brexit Britain is underway. While much of the debate will focus on Brexit (hard otherwise) and what it will mean, there are the usual areas for debate and disagreement – the economy, health, education, defence and all the rest.

The two major parties have set out plans for schools with the Conservatives looking to increase funding, expand free and grammar schools along with new Institutes of Technology (whatever happened to UTCs?). Labour is looking to establish a National Education Service, scrap tuition fees and revive the maintenance grant. There a quite a few differences of emphasis between the two major parties but one thing they have in common is the continued commitment to Apprenticeships and the new Levy.

A few extra ‘appetizers’ have been thrown in for good measure by both parties. In the blue corner, the 3 million target remains although it is questionable if this is for “young people” or not, there will be an Apprentice travel subsidy, employers will be able to use Levy funds for Apprenticeships in their supply chain as well as using it to pay Apprentice wages. In the red corner, the Levy will also be available for pre-apprenticeship programmes, the £440m allocated for Apprenticeships in SMEs will be protected and a there is a new target of doubling Level 3 Apprenticeships by 2022.

The continued emphasis on Apprenticeships and their value to learners and employers can only be positive although there are concerns that the money that will be generated by the Levy is being spread rather thinly. The CBI is keen to see the Levy being used for a wider purpose than simply Apprenticeship training while provider associations are keen to see the funding for non-levy employers is not forgotten.

The main point of all this is that whoever wins the election, Apprenticeships and the Levy are here to stay and education in general will be a topic of debate over the coming weeks, months and years. I’m afraid I can’t better the comment by the General Secretary of the Association of School and College Leaders who said, “There’s good, there’s bad and there’s woolly”. Twas ever thus.






Image Source - Wiki Commons: User:95jb14 (original) and Wikipedia:en:User:Anthony717 (modifications)

With just days to go until the new Apprenticeship Levy comes in, figures for new degree apprenticeships have just been released. So far, employer groups and universities have created 21 brand new degree level apprenticeships. These cover a really broad range of occupations – from Aerospace Engineer and Nuclear Scientist through to Solicitor and Chartered Manager.

As with any apprenticeship, learners will complete periods of workplace practice coupled with off site learning (either in a campus setting or on-line, or a mixture of both).

With mounting graduate debt (driven by the loans that most young people take out when they go to university), this has got to be an attractive offer for potential recruits. A degree, based with a top-flight employer, and you get paid while you’re doing it. And you get a job at the end. And no debt!

This, coupled with the influence that the employer can have in shaping the programme, and the ability to properly assess the potential of the individual over the extended period of the apprenticeship, means employers should also get real benefits.

We think that degree apprenticeships could become the way that the best employers find the very best candidates…

I expect we would all agree that diversity is a good thing to have in our lives and this is spectacularly reflected in the new Apprenticeship Standards.

Groups of employers, large and small, have been busily developing the new Standards for the reformed Apprenticeships. Currently, there are about 250 occupations in 15 overarching sectors at different levels which have been “approved for delivery”, and there are many more in the pipeline. The occupations range from the ‘traditional’ (stone mason) to the more ‘modern’ (cyber security technical professional) to some I admit I had to look up!

This very wide range of occupations has to be a good thing for a number of reasons. It shows that a huge number of diverse employers are actively engaged with and support Apprenticeships as a valued route into employment. It also gives job seekers, young and old, choices which may never have occurred to them.

The Standards have been written on two sides of A4 to make them accessible to all outlining the role alongside the knowledge, skills and behaviours that are expected. Of course, there will also need to be a significant amount of detail that lies behind the headlines for training and assessment purposes. Sitting alongside the Standards are the Assessment Plans (which are much longer than 2 sides). These documents specify how the Apprentice should be assessed and graded with the focus on an end point assessment. There is no requirement for qualifications and each end point assessment will differ in approach. Additionally, each standard has been allocated a funding band with all the rules that go with funding system (uplifts, top ups and additional support).

I started by saying that diversity is a good thing but with it can come complexity for both potential Apprentices and their prospective employers. Careers advice in schools has long been a thorny issue and employers are often put off by the perceived or actual bureaucracy that any funded system brings. Navigating the new Apprenticeship system will not be straightforward but the prize for employers and learners is great and well worth the investment.

There may have been a change of heart on National Insurance in the budget but there is no going back on the introduction of the Apprenticeship Levy in a few weeks’ time. Employers whose payroll is in excess of £3m will be contributing 0.5% to the Levy pot whether they employ apprentices or not.

The long awaited register of apprenticeship training providers has just been published by the Skills Funding Agency - the  Register  lists all the organisations that have been approved to deliver apprenticeship training from 1st May this year. The list is a long one (c1,700 organisations), but is interesting for a number of reasons.

It is naturally enough dominated by the traditional delivery partners (FE Colleges and private providers) but it also contains over twice the number of employers (170) approved to deliver apprenticeship training directly and over 80 Higher Education providers (HEIs).
The employers listed include NHS Trusts (30) and Councils (9) alongside the ‘traditional’’ employer providers (the Armed Services, BT, BAE Systems to name a few) and not forgetting Milton Keynes Dons Football club. The HEIs range from the ‘new’ universities to red brick and members of the Russell Group.

This increase in interest Apprenticeship training is most welcome as it should bring greater choice for the learner and more accurately reflect labour market needs. The greater employer interest in delivery is quite probably largely due to the levy payments they will have to make and the desire to have more direct involvement in their apprentices learning journey. The HEI engagement is more a direct result of the high profile of the Degree Apprenticeship programme.

So, there are encouraging signs that the levy and the widening of Apprenticeships programmes will bring about greater involvement from all sides. However, we have to remember that the delivery, whether that is direct or indirect, is only one aspect of the Apprenticeship scheme. There is an ever-increasing number of standards from which employers will need to select. There is also the area of independent assessment, including end point assessment, which needs to take place. There are a few pieces of the jigsaw missing in order to make a coherent whole but the picture is coming together.

The recent budget contained the usual mix of winners, losers and controversy. The increase in National Insurance was, for some, a broken promise; there was also an increase in business rates and investment, particularly in social care.

Education and skills figured in the announcements and did not escape criticism. The creation of more free schools and grammar schools will undoubtedly cause division along ideological grounds if nothing else. Apprenticeships (and the forthcoming levy) and skills figured in the mix with the seemingly obligatory mention of parity of esteem alongside skills gaps and training young people for the future.

The announcement on T-(Technical) levels for the post 16 age group was not really new as this was the result of Sainsbury review in late 2015 and the Skills Plan of July last year, but any investment in skills has to be welcomed. The implementation of the 15 new sector pathways will be phased over the next 5 years. However, questions will continue on the ‘equivalence’ of these qualifications, an issue which has dogged all forms of technical education over the decades. It seems to me that the primacy of the academic route is based more on its longevity and relative stability than on its inherent value. Perhaps the lesson to be learnt is that the more you change the system, the less credibility it has (does anyone remember 16 -18 Diplomas?).

With changes in Apprenticeships already underway and the introduction of the Levy next month, we are again at a pivotal point in skills training. There will inevitably be controversy and disagreement about the best way forward. The equivalency question and the relationship between T-Levels and the new Apprenticeships will need to be addressed. The one hope I have is that we are building a system of technical education that will last longer than a single term of parliament. One thing is for sure, Apprenticeships and technical training have been around for hundreds of years and will remain in the future.