Funding may well be key to getting anywhere near the government’s 3m apprenticeship starts target for the period of the new Parliament, but ensuring quality teaching is behind the figures will also help achieve the goal.

While money is clearly essential, understanding the pedagogy underpinning apprenticeships is highly important if we are to improve both their quality as well as increase their quantity.

The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) evaluation of the apprenticeship Trailblazers, mainly concerned with the process by which employers had been engaged and broadly positive in tone, stresses that we are beyond design of standards and into delivery of training.

Understanding the pedagogy underpinning apprenticeships is highly important if we are to improve both their quality as well as increase their quantity

For instance, most recently in the Queen’s speech we heard that the term ‘apprenticeship’ will, like ‘university’, become a protected word. As Skills Minister Nick Boles put it: ‘If university graduates have their moment in the sun so should people who undertake apprenticeships.’

What we now need to do, post the hype of the General Election, is to think carefully about which learning methods work best for which standard, really understanding the many different employment contexts — large and small, different sectors, different levels.

The Alliance for Research into Vocational Education of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, 157 Group, the Centre for Real-World Learning and City & Guilds — has made a start. In our report, Remaking Apprenticeships: powerful learning for work and life, we argue for a more ambitious definition of the desired outcomes of apprenticeship, suggest some of its signature ‘ingredients’ and offer a broad range of high quality learning methods.

Early on we include a little mentioned quotation from BIS: ‘Learners must demand high quality pedagogy which will necessitate that stronger links are built between employers, teaching and teachers.’

It’s an unlikely scenario to think of apprentices clamouring for pedagogy from their providers, but of all the BIS pronouncements on apprenticeship it is
spot on.

In Remaking Apprenticeships we defined an apprentice as: ‘a job with significant inbuilt learning designed to prepare the apprentice for future employment, employability and active citizenship of a high quality’ and if we are to be true to our definition and really protect the brand we need to do four things.

Firstly, must be more ambitious. Focus less on whether we are using Dutch or German models and more on what will be world-class in terms of outcomes from apprentices ‘made in England’ – the resourcefulness of employees, their transferable skills and the pride they have in their work, for example.

Secondly, we must recognise what is distinctive — that apprenticeships require on and off-the-job learning, are essentially about communities of practice and need an unambiguous focus on and visibility of learning processes.

Thirdly, we must have a serious conversation about learning methods, such as using experts, with peers, through practice, hands-on, feedback, one-to-one, real world, against the clock and online.

Fourthly, we need Individual Leaning Plans to create a dynamic new kind of learner record which can be used as a means not just of recording transactions but also to reflect on and learn from experiences.

 

The prevention of extremism is a wide-ranging concern that reaches into vocational education and training issue, a Selina Stewart explains.

The statutory duty to prevent extremism will soon come in to effect. However, as independent learning providers (ILPs) will know, Ofsted has been inspecting for compliance with the Prevent duty for several months.

Ofsted expects all staff and volunteers to be Prevent duty-trained and will check with individuals during inspections.

Equally, they will ask students what they would do if they believed someone was vulnerable to exploitation by extremists, whether in the provider organisation or in their workplace. So everyone needs to know how to refer people, just as they would do for Safeguarding.

Any provider judged inadequate in compliance with the Prevent duty will find that this leads to an inadequate grading overall. As all private providers are well aware, this can lead to the termination of Skills Funding Agency contracts.

Some ILPs, such as West Yorkshire Learning Providers are well ahead in their approach to the duty as they have carried out risk assessments, reviewed policies and procedures and arranged training for staff. Some providers may not yet be fully aware of what compliance involves.

The Prevent duty applies to all forms of extremism and to the promotion of British values. Ofsted will expect to see compliance in all areas of the country.

British values are one potentially controversial area of the Duty. We can joke about British values being queuing and such like, but there is now a clear definition of British values in legislation.

All staff and board members are expected to exemplify British values including: democracy, the rule of law, individual freedom, tolerance and mutual respect of other faiths and beliefs.

The Guidance is clear that this includes compliance with the Equality Duty to prevent discrimination and promote equality. Our website — www.preventforfeandtraining.org.uk — has materials to support ILPs in adopting the Duty.

Ofsted will expect to see Prevent compliance in all areas of the country

A good starting point for all providers is a review of the Good Practice Guide which sets out the basic requirements. Providers should follow up with a risk assessment leading into a review of policies and procedures. There are examples of all of these on the website.

The Prevent lead should be your Safeguarding officer who should make contact with your local FE, police or local authority Prevent coordinator. But the Prevent duty is the responsibility of all staff and board members so the ETF is currently finalising new online training resources and guidance notes for all staff and board members. The ETF has developed guidance for vocational subjects and apprenticeships suggesting opportunities and ways to teach and discuss British values. This too can be found on the website.

The ETF is also working with the Association of Employment and Learning Providers to develop further support. This will include workshops on Prevent. And we are developing a review and consultancy offer which will be tailored to individual providers and face to face training session for Safeguarding officers.

At first glance, the Prevent duty may appear to be a very challenging additional responsibility. There is no doubt that it needs to be taken seriously as the consequences of non-compliance are so serious for provide providers. However, there is help out there from both the ETF and the Prevent coordinators.

 

Jonathan Wells makes the case for the end of preferential government treatment for GCSEs over Functional Skills

Functional Skills (FS) are not the ‘easy option’, they are much more rigorous than GCSEs when it comes to application of skills, pass marks are significantly higher and the focus is on the application of basic skills in real life practical situations, rather than academic theories.

More than 45 per cent of learners entering the sector do so without having achieved maths and English at grade A to C GCSE, and of those, the majority have a grade D — that’s 122,000 learners in maths and another 118,000 in English (an astonishing 26 per cent of all boys in GCSE English achieve grade D).

While GCSE suits those with an academic aspiration, there are many problems with delivering GSCE in the post-16 sector.

For example, where are the qualified GCSE teachers/tutors in the post-16 sector? GCSE has just two windows of opportunity for examination per year — how does this fit with the roll-on, roll-off nature of many vocational courses? On a practical level, if a training provider does deliver the learning for GCSE successfully, where does the learner take the exam? JCQ requirements on exam centres are incredibly strict and few private training providers have the facilities to manage the strict JCQ requirements for GCSE exams.

So what about those learners in the sixth and seventh decile of academic achievement? This is the group that forms the core of the ‘vocational learners’ who go on to apprenticeships, typically at level two and three.

In this category, employers do not seek GCSE, instead the Education and Training Foundation Report published in March 2015 found that FS are the qualification of choice for employers who know about them.

Many young people will struggle to get an apprenticeship position. For example a quick look on the new Government service — www.findapprenticeship.service.gov.uk — shows on the first few pages for Durham three jobs requiring GCSE A to C in maths and English for level two intermediate apprenticeships. Why do jobs like this impose a minimum GCSE requirement? Could it be that employers and providers are keen to avoid having to deliver maths and English to learners?

In an age where a provider’s success is judged on retention and achievement rates, and where their income is influenced by learner’s success, is it any wonder that providers are seeking to reduce the chance of failure or of learners simply leaving?

Achieving grade C is not simply a matter of ‘trying until you pass’.

If that was the case, they would have achieved this at school.

Ultimately, success for most learners in the sixth and seventh decile of academic achievement is all about getting a successful career.

This typically means vocational learning supported by good, practical English and maths skills that support their job and aspirations.

FS as part of an individualised appropriate and relevant study programme are most often the best means of achieving this aim.

After all, what seems the best scenario — a level two FS qualification that is acceptable and indeed welcomed by employers or a grade D GCSE that is seen as a failure?

 

Mapped out long-term career paths in technical or leadership roles are just some of the propositions facing apprentice at Sweett Group, Doulas McCormick outlines how and why such attractive professional offers are being put before earners and learners.

The latest report from the UKCES talks of the Death of the Saturday Job, with more students than ever turning away from part-time work in favour of focussing on exam results and grades.

While this may appear to be a logical course of action to boost employment prospects, the simple fact is — it isn’t.

Research from UKCES has repeatedly shown that what employers really value is experience. Last year UKCES carried out a survey of 18,000 UK employers, of all those that had recruited in the past 12 months two thirds (66 per cent) said having work experience was a critical or significant factor in their decisions. By opting for grades over experience, young people are pitching themselves to the minority.

Experience is clearly more than just a checkbox on the employer wish list. So how do apprenticeships stand up as a solution?

The apprenticeship programme has been hugely successful for Sweett Group, but this success has not been without its share of challenges

Having started my own career as an apprentice, I have first-hand experience of the benefits that apprenticeship programmes bring to businesses, and society as a whole.

In 2014, Sweett Group launched its Quantity Surveying Apprenticeship Programme, in partnership with The Construction Industry Training Board and Havering College. So far the programme has recruited 10 apprentices, and is looking to recruit a further 10 in September.

The apprenticeship programme has been hugely successful for Sweett Group, but this success has not been without its share of challenges.

Putting in place an effective structure and rolling out the delivery of a high quality apprenticeship programme is time-consuming. However, the benefits outweigh the challenges, as businesses are left with trained young people that have hands-on business experience who will make for better, more productive employees.

One of the major benefits of an apprenticeship is a stronger, longer lasting link between employees and employers. Indeed, research shows two thirds of apprentices stay on with their employer after completing their apprenticeship.

At Sweett Group, we have implemented structured apprenticeship programmes, which involve mapped out long-term career paths in technical or leadership roles. Beyond this we also have dedicated and trained mentors; we’ve put in place rotation schemes, have regular group training sessions and Q&As with senior practitioners, and provide intense personal and pastoral support.

It is clear the government’s current skills priorities focus on apprenticeships. Although welcome, their ambition to create 3m new apprenticeships must not be achieved at the expense of quality.

One solution is for employers to take charge, enabled by government, to develop sector-based approaches that result in apprenticeships being a high-quality earning and learning career pathway for young people and a normal way for businesses to recruit and develop their future talent.

We are already seeing evidence of sector-based approaches in the form of ‘Trailblazing’ groups of employers in England that are designing new apprenticeship standards and assessment approaches.

 

Dr Ann Limb presents five reasons to be cheerful about skills, devolution and localism over the next five years.

I’ve worked with — and for — Conservative, Labour, and Coalition governments. It is from this perspective that I predict the next five to 10 years could be the most exciting, challenging, and potentially the most creative and productive, for FE colleges and independent learning providers (ILPs).

So here’s why. Firstly, the long campaign to raise the status of technical, vocational and professional training is succeeding, epitomized in part by the cross party political consensus on the importance, value and prioritisation of the apprenticeship route to skills acquisition and employment.

There will undoubtedly be significant issues about achieving an arbitrarily determined numerical manifesto pledge and the sector will be judged on how it responds to this. Nonetheless there are opportunities to be seized here — a chance to use renewed interest in apprenticeships to position providers positively in a reconfigured system. Secondly, the sector’s leadership is mature, confident, collaborative and outward looking — and more joined-up than ever.

The new government has quickly demonstrated its unequivocal ideological penchant for the devolution of power and budgets to local level

National organisations such as the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, Association of Colleges, the 157 Group and the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education. I experience a much greater willingness of late for the leadership of the major national bodies to work together, and in partnership with employers and Leps, where there is common ground.

Thirdly, the new government has quickly demonstrated its unequivocal ideological penchant for the devolution of power and budgets to local level — with attendant accountability for growth and economic development resting largely on the shoulders of local authorities working with their private sectors partners in Leps, employer membership bodies, and trades unions. This presents a golden opportunity for skills providers to capitalise on their established pre-eminence with their local constituents, employers and businesses.

Any lack of national profile generally for post-16 sector skills providers when compared to schools and universities, is offset by the overwhelmingly positive regard in which FE colleges and ILPs are held in their local communities.

Fourthly, devolution and localism offer a significant strategic opportunity for the post 14-education system to be re-shaped for the long term — with regard to funding, operational delivery, and local business engagement. It remains to be seen whether government will be bold in its thinking on this or whether it will continue to reconfigure the sector through a prolonged series of salami-sliced funding cuts, like those recently announced.

I was a college principal in 1992 when the last Conservative majority government demonstrated the vision, courage and muscle to lead the sector into incorporation. As the sector comes of age, I urge current Ministers to be as reforming as their political forebears.

Finally — and this is something the sector should take pride in — vocational skills are no longer the forgotten third child of the educational system. FE colleges and ILPs alike have shaken off their ‘Billy no-mates’ image and can demonstrate a growing track record of success. ILPs and FE colleges have friends, admirers, and advocates at all levels — locally, nationally and internationally.