The government has committed to introducing all new apprenticeship standards in time for August 2020, rather than “by 2020” as previously stated.
Plans to stop funding old apprenticeship frameworks and ensure providers were only delivering new Trailblazer standards were first announced in October 2013, with the frameworks initially planned to end in 2017/18.
However, the government’s ‘2020 vision’ apprenticeship document, released in December 2015, pushed this deadline back and planned instead for “a migration from apprenticeship frameworks to standards over the course of the parliament, with as much of this to take place by 2017/18 as possible.”
Three waves of frameworks have so far been switched off, but earlier this year the Education and Skills Funding Agency announced it would not be closing any further frameworks until 2020.
“By 2020, we expect that employers and providers will have completed the transition, and that all starts will be on standards, so all frameworks will be withdrawn to new starts at that point,” the guidance said.
However, “by 2020” has now morphed into August 2020 at the earliest, after the Treasury released a press release today on changes to apprenticeships.
This included £5 million for the Institute for Apprenticeships to introduce new standards and update existing ones.
“The government will discontinue the old frameworks so that all new apprenticeships will be on the same higher-quality standards by the start of the 2020/21 academic year,” it said.
According to the most recent apprenticeship framework delivery list, published on September 12, 86 frameworks have been withdrawn so far. Two more have withdrawal dates listed – level four public relations (January 1, 2019) and level five care leadership and management (December 31, 2018).
To date, 124 frameworks remain without a withdrawal date.
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