The UK often looks to Europe for inspiration on apprenticeships. Tom Bewick suggests a glance across the pond instead.

American apprenticeships are perhaps an unlikely example of a world-class system in the making.

Yet, in his state of the union address in January, President Barack Obama said he wanted, “more on-the-job training, and more apprenticeships that set a young worker on an upward trajectory for life.”

To back up the Obama Administration’s aim to double the number of apprenticeships by 2017, Congress has been asked to approve an additional $2bn (£1.2bn) of spending on ‘modern apprenticeships’.

While the US Department of Labor focuses on central coordination — including providing better information for apprentices and employers through a new website — the individual states are left largely to get on and innovate with new types of apprenticeship design and delivery.

And much of what is being implemented is similar in tone, if not in detail, to what Doug Richard has been calling for here.

Trailblazer states like South Carolina are providing a positive feedback loop to the federal government on what works (and what doesn’t) in driving high quality apprenticeships.

Brad Neese, executive director of the publicly funded body Apprenticeships Carolina — a brand name the state government has trademark protected — puts his organisation’s stellar performance down to three main things.

Technical colleges have a lot of individual freedom and the kind of industry-education links that would leave most FE colleges in the UK standing

First, South Carolina has increased the number of apprentices by just over 600 per cent in seven years, he says, because of “where the skills and workforce development piece sits in the state’s overall economic development agenda”.

Designing apprenticeships that work is not some technocratic backwater, as it can be in England, but integral to the state government’s foreign direct investment and wider jobs strategy.

To put that in perspective, South Carolina — about the same size as Wales — attracted more that $5bn (£3.2bn) in foreign investment capital in 2013, creating more than 15,000 new jobs.

European companies like BMW are flocking to the area, while American companies such as Boeing and Continental Tyres are expanding operations along with their supply chains.

All this adds up to a new manufacturing hub, where 85 per cent of new jobs created have been in advanced manufacturing. With less unionisation than states in the mid-West, like Michigan, South Carolina is perceived as a much more business friendly destination.

The second reason is the inspiring performance of the state’s 16 technical colleges.

Founded more than 50 years ago after the collapse of the traditional textiles mills, the system prides itself on its “lack of specificity” and the absence of “excessive rules and formalities that suck the life out of people”.

Technical colleges have a lot of individual freedom and the kind of industry-education links that would leave most FE colleges in the UK standing.

Indeed, the new chief executive of the system office coordinating all 16 technical colleges, Dr Jimmie Williamson, sums up the interchange between the public and corporate sector quite well.

Dr Williamson was himself a principal of two technical colleges in the state before being poached by a private healthcare provider where he introduced America’s first nursing apprenticeships.

Returning to the public sector, he has negotiated a continued role with the State education board and his ex-private sector employer, allowing him to continue in a consulting role because “the tech system has always been responsive to the market”, he says.

Underwriting that responsiveness is one of the flagship policies of the South Carolina model: the $1,000 tax credit per apprentice, per year, for up to four years.

Both Dr Williamson and Mr Neese see this as just one of the “important tools in the box”, because it has helped open up the conversation with some firms that have traditionally been suspicious of government initiatives.

Indeed, to the outside observer, you would be forgiven for thinking that apprenticeships in South Carolina had anything to do with government at all, since everything about how the model operates is far removed from Leviathan or a bureaucracy.

Tom Bewick, director and chief economist, International Skills Standards Organisation (INSSO

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INSSO, in partnership with FE Week, is organising a study tour to Canada and the USA on June 8 to 14. Visit www.insso.org/studytour for details.

As college bosses look on nervously while government funding cuts take hold, they must also think of ever more innovative ways to make ends meet. Verity Hancock suggests a review of how the FE loans pot can be used.
Back in 2012 the Skills Funding Agency (SFA) confirmed that Leicester College was in the top five colleges that would be most affected by the new 24+ advanced learning loans system.

Usually being in a list of top five is excellent news, but in this case somewhere considerably further down the list would have been preferable.

Nevertheless, recognising that loans were going to have a major impact, the college planned for their introduction with reviews of its offer, detailed communication plans, staff training, leaflets to over 100,000 homes and other marketing activities to potential learners and employers.

As a result, we have managed to secure loans for 250 learners totalling half of our facility — 46 per cent are taking level three diplomas, 42 per cent are taking access courses, with the remainder on A-levels and level four diplomas.

Operationally, the introduction of loans has been smooth — the Department for Business, Innovation and Skill, the Student Loans Company and the SFA have focussed on ensuring that the process works.

Restricting our access to funding on top of cuts to the main allocation limits our ability to innovate

While we entirely understand the rationale for seeking increased individual and employer investment, transferring more of the adult budget into a loans facility and separating that from the main allocation represents another hit on college finances.

Some colleges have been very successful in promoting the take-up of loans, but we have yet to convince enough people that taking out a loan that you only pay back when you can afford it, is a sensible proposition.

Leicester is primarily a low wage economy, so asking people to sign up to a system based on credit when all the national economic messages are about the perils of borrowing too much is bound to make them sceptical.

When we look at our funding statement, we can see the tantalising figure of our loans facility, next year’s figure even larger than this, but we know it is highly unlikely that we will be able to use it all.

Clearly any reduction in funding is difficult, but restricting our access to funding on top of cuts to the main allocation limits our ability to innovate and to develop and market the kinds of products for which people might be willing to take out loans.

The financing of education and training is different and so the products we offer must also look different.

Ultimately, it is our learners and the economy that stand to lose out.

If colleges cannot invest in future development, the stock of this country’s vocational education provision will be reduced.

Many colleges have commissioned analysis which demonstrates the substantial contributions they make to local economies.

While we may not be the ‘makers’ Chancellor George Osborne mentioned in his Budget speech, we do generate significant economic value — and failure to acknowledge this is a huge oversight.

All governments are very keen to promote the knowledge economy.

It would be a clever move to support this section of the economy by unlocking access to the funding set aside for loans so that we can get as many people into high quality training as possible.

This could be by ring-fencing some loan funds for design, development and marketing, or allowing 19 to 23-year-olds, who are currently disadvantaged in this respect, to access loans.

Whatever is decided, our experience is that a different approach is going to be critical in enabling us to maximise the potential that loans offer.

Verity Hancock, principal, Leicester College

Ofsted and data can both hold fear for principals, but Chris Thomson says embracing both can provide a path to success.

With a fear of being shunned by my peers, I actually view Ofsted as a free consulting service, which all colleges should embrace.

I’ve been principal at Brighton Hove & Sussex Sixth Form College (BHASVIC) for 15 years.

We’ve progressed up the ranks from satisfactory to being judged as outstanding in our latest inspection.

In that time I have learned a lot and one of the main lessons is to embrace Ofsted.

Most people in the education sector worry about an inspection, but here at BHASVIC, we’ve always seen it as an opportunity for a fresh pair of eyes to tell us where we can improve.

I despair of colleges that think you can prepare and achieve outstanding in the run-up to an anticipated inspection. You can’t pull the wool over the eyes of an Ofsted team.

The blossom on the tree isn’t there because it’s stuck on, it’s because the roots of the tree are healthy.

The essence of the whole operation at our college is that we are there to serve our students and we do this from a healthy foundation built over time, not in a few weeks before an Ofsted visit.

One of the backbones to this approach is our use of data, as it gives us that same view that Ofsted provides — a snapshot of what is truly happening in the college not swayed by preconceptions.

I despair of colleges that think you can prepare and achieve outstanding in the run-up to an anticipated inspection

There is no doubt that a teacher’s judgement about a student in their class and how they are progressing will be affected by the relationship they have with the student and vice versa.

By providing the right data we help teachers see the real picture of progress for each and every student, without any external influences.

We use the data to examine the value we are adding as an organisation.

We look at the GCSE grades students achieved before joining the college and by comparing these to national results, we can then predict what they should achieve at A-level.

If a student is predicted Bs and they achieve As, we can see this is the added value BHASVIC has provided over what the student may have achieved if they had attended another college.

This has helped turn teachers’ attitude to data on its head. They now regard it as a tool to see where improvements can be made and it is raising expectations of the college as a whole. It makes us all want to achieve more for our students.

By using the data on a regular basis, teachers start to trust that data is not going to be used as a stick to beat them, it’s actually been the key to unlocking the process of quality improvement at our college.

For us, the data and Ofsted serve as an external pair of eyes, helping us to measure student performance against the national data set. We can see what we are doing well and what we need to do better.

I always think of it in the scenario of Michelangelo painting the Sistine Chapel — he’s only 45 cm from the ceiling, yet Ofsted and the data serve as the man on the ground who can see the big picture, saying you missed a bit.

Our journey to outstanding has taken 15 years and four inspections, which we’ve embraced along the way. We’ve been told what needs improving then gone away and done it. The beauty of having this data to hand is that when Ofsted does visit, teachers can easily answer any questions.

Do I fear Ofsted? No, they are there to ensure that students get the best education, which is also our college’s mission. We are heading in the same direction.

Chris Thomson, principal, Brighton,
Hove & Sussex Sixth Form College (BHASVIC)