The Government’s Enterprise Bill — currently making its way through parliament — contains a number of measures designed to set minimum standards for apprenticeships, including legally protecting the term ‘apprenticeship’ and setting public sector targets.

However, reporter Jude Burke found that these pale in comparison to the first time government legislated on minimum standards for apprenticeships, back in the sixteenth century.

Apprenticeships — the early years:

The Statute of Artificers, introduced by the parliament of Elizabeth 1st in 1563, made it illegal for anyone to “exercise any art, mystery or occupation now used or occupied within the realm of England and Wales except he shall have been brought up therein seven years at the least as an apprentice”.

Before the introduction of this legislation, apprenticeships were regulated by the guilds of trades and craftsmen.

An apprentice, often starting as young as 10 or 12, would learn his trade over a period of years — often seven, but it could be longer or shorter than this — with his master being responsible for his board, lodging and clothing as well as teaching.

The 1563 Act was abolished in 1814, as the popularity of apprenticeships waned “due to conditions in factories and exploitation of young apprentices”, according to a House of Commons research paper from 2009.

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From heyday to low point:

Apprenticeships in certain trades, particularly those which required practical skills, remained popular in subsequent decades.

There were around 340,000 apprentices per year in the early twentieth century, according to an Institute of Directors (IoD) policy paper from 2003.

By the mid-1960s — “the high water mark for apprenticeship in Britain” according to the IoD — roughly 35 per cent of male school leavers aged 15 to 17 went on to do an apprenticeship.

However, by 1990 the number of apprentices had dropped to just 53,000.

The fall in apprenticeship numbers came despite the launch, in 1964, of UK Industry Training Boards (ITBs), which were intended to ensure there were sufficient numbers of apprenticeships to avoid skill shortages in traditionally skilled occupations and higher technician and engineering professionals.

The IoD paper cites a number of reasons for the decline in apprenticeships, including the changing nature of work which meant there were fewer traditional trade jobs, the cost of apprenticeships and the rise in post-16 education.

The rise of Modern Apprenticeships:

Modern Apprenticeships (MAs), first announced by then-Chancellor Kenneth Clarke in November 1993, were designed to reverse the decline in apprenticeship numbers and provide a boost to work-based training.

MAs were launched in 1994, and fully up and running by September 1995.

By June 1996, according to a government white paper called ‘Creating the enterprise centre of Europe’, there were already MA frameworks covering 54 sectors, with more than 20,000 apprentices in training.

By the end of 1998, according to a House of Commons blog from last year’s National Apprenticeship Week, almost 250,000 people in England and Wales had started an MA.

However, MAs were continually dogged by concerns over quality, and went through numerous reforms over the years.

These included the introduction, in the early 2000s, of frameworks setting out the minimum standards required of each apprenticeship, and, in 2004, dropping the word ‘modern’ from the scheme’s name.

From modern to post-modern:

The late 2000s saw the apprenticeship momentum grow.

The first National Apprenticeship Week took place in 2007, to draw more attention nationally to the benefits of apprenticeships.

Then in 2009, the National Apprenticeship Service was launched to oversee delivery of apprenticeships.

Nonetheless the reforms continued. In 2012 the Richard Review, commissioned by the Government and led by former Dragons’ Den star Doug Richard, recommended making apprenticeships more employer-orientated and called for employers to pay providers directly for apprenticeship training.

The Government’s response was to introduce, in October 2013, new Trailblazer apprenticeship standards designed by employers, to ensure apprentices develop the skills needed by industry.

The idea was that these would be co-funded, with the government paying up to two-thirds of the cost with employers responsible for the balance.

The first of these new standards were approved for use in November 2014.

At the same time, apprenticeship numbers continued to grow. The coalition government oversaw 2.4m starts, and in 2015 the new Conservative government pledged to create 3m new apprenticeship starts by 2020.

The future

From April 2017, large employers will pay the apprenticeship levy, set at 0.5 per cent of an employer’s pay bill over £3m.

It’s estimated that it will raise around £3bn for apprenticeship training, but questions still remain about how the measure will be implemented and how non-levy payers will access levy funds.

Apprenticeship legends — The film

A film about the history of apprenticeships in their home county is being launched by the Cornwall College Group (CCG) to coincide with National Apprenticeships Week.

The oldest record the production team discovered dates from 1541, and is for a carpentry apprentice named William Holyer of Lostwithiel.

Jamie Reed, PR manager for CCG and production manager for Apprenticeship Legends, said: “Apprenticeships have been recognised as a way of training for hundreds of years and that is certainly the case here in Cornwall.

“We have studied the archives at the records office at County Hall, interviewed families who have stories of organisations like Holman’s and spoken to former apprentices. It’s been a really emotional and enlightening journey.”

“Conditions were tough and the indentures bound the servant to their master and vice versa; the master was personally responsible for teaching the apprentice and their welfare.

“Our documentary also looked at the last 70 years of apprenticeships through Cornwall College.

“We’ve talked to people who are now company directors, master technicians, project managers and self-made millionaires; an apprenticeship can really take you anywhere in the world and our interviewees are proof of that.”

The government is launching court action to challenge National Union of Teachers (NUT) strike action planned at sixth form colleges across the country on Tuesday (March 15).

The hearing will be at London’s Royal Courts of Justice on Monday.

It comes after FE Week reported on February 29 that NUT members had backed the strike through a ballot, with 86 per cent voting in favour of the industrial action from a 44 per cent turnout.

A Department for Education spokesman old FE Week today: “The NUT is seeking to disrupt the education of thousands of students through what we believe to be an unlawful dispute, based on political grounds and not a trade dispute about the terms and conditions of its members.

“We therefore intend to challenge this through the courts.

“We recognise the importance of investing in education which is why, thanks to the difficult decisions we have taken elsewhere, we have been able to protect core 16 to 19 funding.

“At the same time we have ended the unfair difference between post-16 schools and colleges by funding them per student to ensure that all young people leave education with the skills they need to thrive in modern Britain.”

Kevin Courtney, deputy general secretary of the NUT, expressed “regret” over the legal action.

“We regret that the government has chosen this route rather than seeking to resolve the dispute through negotiations about adequate funding for the sector, which could protect teachers’ conditions of service and students’ conditions of learning,” he said.

“Sixth form colleges provide a vital service that is in danger of all but disappearing if government does not listen and reverse and remedy the severe funding crisis in colleges.

“It seems as though the government is doing anything it can to avoid parents knowing about the funding crisis facing 16-19 education.

“This court case is every bit as much an attack on the right to strike as the trade union bill currently going through Parliament. We hope to defeat this cynical legal challenge on Monday.”

A total of 1,689 NUT members took part in the ballot, with 1,453 voting for the strike action and 235 against.

The question put to members was “In order to persuade the Secretary of State for Education [Nicky Morgan] to increase presently inadequate funding levels which cause detrimental changes to terms and conditions within the sixth form college sector are you prepared to take a day’s strike action?”

Local authorities have recorded a nationwide increase in the proportion of young people in education or training across England.

Data to be published on Wednesday shows that 91.2 per cent of 1,170,630 16 and 17-year-olds known to local authorities across the country were in some form of education or training at the end of 2015.

It represents a 1 per cent increase from the end of 2014.

All of the English regions experienced an increase, with the largest being 1.5 per cent for the West Midlands and the lowest 0.3 per cent for London.

The figures were welcomed by Catherine Sezen (pictured), senior policy manager for 14 to 19 and curriculum at the Association of Colleges.

She told FE Week: “Raising the age of compulsory participation in education and training has enabled colleges to offer high-quality technical and professional pathways to more young people.

“These figures are extremely encouraging and they emphasise the value young people place on post-16 education and training, when they are enrolled on the right courses in the right environment.

“Colleges are pleased to play a part in creating a positive experience for young people to encourage them to continue into further study or training.”

While the overall percentage increase was the lowest for London, where 169,250 16 to 17-year-olds were recorded in total, it had the highest proportion in full-time education and training at 88.8 per cent.

The capital, however, had the lowest proportion on apprenticeships at 2.3 per cent.

That was in contrast to the north east, where there were 57,620 young people from the same age group.

It had the lowest proportion in full-time education and training at 81.2 per cent, but the highest on apprenticeships at 7.4 per cent.

Skills Minister Nick Boles said: “The [overall] rise in 16-and 17-year-olds participating in education or training is very welcome, and we will work with councils to ensure this positive trend continues.”

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A former employee who defrauded Leeds City College of almost £500,000 has been jailed.

Julia Hogg (pictured) pleaded guilty to two counts of fraudulent activity against the college, between August 2011 and September last year, before she was jailed for three years and eight months.

Leeds Crown Court heard she had been in charge of giving out childcare financial assistance to students, but diverted large payments of money to her own bank account instead.

West Yorkshire Police confirmed the total amount stolen from the college was £479,000.

A Leeds City College spokesperson told FE Week on March 10: “We are shocked and disappointed at the behaviour of this former employee.

“As ever, our students remain our highest priority and we make every effort to ensure that they are supported at all times.”

Hogg, aged 43, of Field Lane, Thorpe Willoughby, near Selby, Yorkshire, began working at the college in 2009 and on a salary of £14,800.

Hogg’s role involved overseeing payments to childcare providers that were supposed to help students with parental responsibilities to attend lessons.

It was reported that she stole £141,000 in a single year at the height of her offending.

Hogg was sacked in October last year after the college realised what she had been doing.

The spokesperson said: “The learner support fund is administered by the college for those who require financial assistance to study and does not form part of the college budget.

“Once identified, we took immediate action to prevent further fraud and to ensure that students were not affected. Student welfare is always our main priority.”

The judgment came as the college, one of biggest in the country, dropped from a grade two to three Ofsted rating. The report, giving the college a ‘requires improvement’-overall rating, was published on March 9.

The college had previously been rated ‘good’-overall in May 2012.

Sir Michael Wilshaw “didn’t really mean” what he said about the FE sector at last week’s Education Select Committee, Skills Minister Nick Boles has said.

Mr Boles opened his speech at the Education and Training Foundation (ETF) Leadership Summit, held at Westminster Kingsway College on March 9 by disagreeing with Sir Michael’s comment, which provoked widespread anger in the FE sector, that all 16 to 19-year-olds should be educated in schools.

“You will all be aware that Sir Michael Wilshaw, the chief inspector of Ofsted, made some comments last week that I’m sure he didn’t really mean. I certainly hope he didn’t really mean them,” Mr Boles said.

“And I just wanted to say, not only do I disagree with him, not only does David Cameron disagree with him, I actually think Michael disagrees with himself,” he continued.

The Ofsted chief inspector attacked the FE sector during an evidence session for the Education Select Committee on March 2, describing it as “in a mess — that’s why the government is reviewing it”.

“My view is that 16 to 19 should be done in school,” he told the committee, chaired by Neil Carmichael MP.

Mr Boles said that Sir Michael had complained “over the last few months and years” about the small number of 16 to 18-year-olds doing apprenticeships.

“It is simply inconceivable to have every 16 to 18-year-old in a school sixth form, and also have more of them doing apprenticeships, because there aren’t very many school sixth forms that I’m aware of who are going to start engaging with employers and providing training that supports apprenticeships,” Mr Boles said.

The Skills Minister told ETF delegates that Sir Michael believed that provision for 16 to 18-year-olds who “are not going to pursue the standard academic route” had “historically been inadequate, not high quality, not a source of pride and focus, not an investment in the same way as the A-level and the full-time university course route has been”.

“So I can only assume that he was perhaps — as we all do, as I’ve often done — slightly misrepresenting his own considered views,” Mr Boles added.

FE Week’s news story about the chief inspector’s comments provoked an unprecedented and unanimous backlash, with more than 40 comments posted on the FE Week website in just 24 hours many of which criticised him for airing his personal opinions in a public capacity.

Martin Doel, chief executive of the Association of Colleges, wrote to Sir Michael, challenging him to justify his opinions about the sector.

He called on Sir Michael to provide “as a matter of urgency a clear rationale for your conclusions”.

“It would be all the better if those conclusions corresponded with the judgment of the inspectors in your organisation; I fail to see how this could be so given that 82 per cent of colleges who provide 16 to 18 education have been judged good or outstanding in recent Ofsted inspections,” he continued.

FE Week contacted Ofsted to ask for Sir Michael’s response to Mr Boles’s comments, but a spokesperson said they had nothing more to add.

A spokesperson for the education watchdog had previously said that Sir Michael’s comments were clearly his personal opinion.