The University of Cambridge’s apprenticeship training has been rated ‘outstanding’ in its first full inspection, although its programme for senior leaders has now been axed.
Last month’s full inspection was the university’s first since its Institute of Continuing Education launched its apprenticeship programme in 2019 and resulted in ‘outstanding’ grades across the board.
At the time of the inspection, the university had 76 senior leader apprentices and 88 architect apprentices, both level 7 standards.
However, the university now only delivers the architect course after closing enrolments for its senior leader master’s apprenticeship in criminology and police management, which is taken by small groups of high-ranking police officers.
Ofsted praised the university’s “considerable academic rigour” and expert assessment that help its 164 apprentices “thrive”.
Apprentices “swiftly” improve their work thanks to “extensive, incisive feedback” from academics and employers that challenges them to deliver work “of a consistently high standard”, inspectors said.
Architects are “very well prepared for their next steps” while many police senior leaders are promoted either during or after their course.
A university spokesperson confirmed the senior leader apprenticeship, which attracts £14,000 in funding per apprentice and must last a minimum of two years, was no longer viable and declined to comment further.
According to the latest DfE data, the university started its last senior leader apprentice in November 2023.
Cambridge appears to be the second prestigious training provider this year to drop an apprenticeship programme despite gaining Ofsted’s highest grade.
Earlier this year, Dyson announced it would pay at least £250,000 per employee for training rather than bear the “heavy (and costly) administrative burden” of degree apprenticeships.
The Institute of Continuing Education is based in Madingley Hall, a 16th-century country house boasting “tasteful en-suite accommodation” for up to 100 delegates, meeting rooms, a bar, and seven acres of “spectacular” gardens.
Apprentices and other students at the institute study in three in-person ‘blocks’ per year, where they “relish” formal dinners and benefit from “high-profile guest speakers”.
Although it will no longer offer apprenticeships for senior police officers, Cambridge’s Institute of Continuing Education is still accepting applications for its two-year criminology and police management master’s, also known as its ‘police executive programme’, costing £31,000.
The institute – which increased its enrolments by a quarter to 8,369 in 2022-23 – also dropped an apprentice-postgraduate certificate in research and innovation management for academics in 2022.
It appears to have scaled back its previously reported plans to deliver “a range of new programmes” in apprenticeships.
Writing in the institute’s annual report, director Dr James Gazzard said 2022-23 placed “punishing” levels of demand on staff.
“The sector is increasingly competitive and regulated,” he added.
“Rightly, particularly given increasing tuition fees, learners are increasingly demanding.
“The University’s offer of continuing, professional, and executive education is distributed across more than twenty providers, strategic frameworks are absent, meaning coordination and economies of scale are difficult to achieve, and internal competition a concerning distraction.”
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