More must be done to address falling apprenticeship starts in early years providers amid the sector’s staffing crisis, Ofsted’s chief has said.
But Amanda Spielman has also warned against using apprentices to replace “skilled, experienced practitioners”, which “isn’t fair to children or apprentices” and “can’t be a long-term solution”.
Spielman told Saturday’s Ofsted Big Conversation that apprenticeships are a part of the solution to address declining staff numbers in the early years sector, but said that “unfortunately fewer young people are even beginning these programmes at the moment”.
According to the education watchdog, the number of new apprentices starting in the sector had fallen from 27,000 six years ago to just 16,000 last year – a 40 per cent fall.
Among the issues she highlighted were delays in employers releasing apprentices for their off-the-job training.
“This may seem like a short-term fix, but it can delay or disrupt their training and cause problems down the road,” she said.
The chief inspector said Ofsted has also seen “some providers using apprentices to replace skilled, experienced practitioners”, adding that this “can’t be a long-term solution and it isn’t fair to the apprentices, or to children”.
Spielman said she hoped that a recent consultation on improving level 3 early years educators course criteria will help inform necessary changes, explaining that “it’s so important that people coming into the sector get off to the right start, and this means equipping them with the knowledge they need”.
A study published by the Social Mobility Commission and carried out by the Education Policy Institute in August 2020 found that low pay, a high workload, long working hours and lack of career development were impacting on staff retention in the early years sector.
It found that fewer than one in five early years workers received job-related training, and more than a third left their employer within two years.
Ofsted’s annual report last year said that early years workers were opting for higher paid or more flexible careers, and warned that while staffing problems had not affected inspection judgements to date, quality could be affected in future if experienced staff continued to leave the industry.
It reported that nurseries were becoming “over-reliant” on apprentices to fill gaps.
Michael Freeston, director of quality improvement at the Early Years Alliance, said the decline in apprenticeships is “disappointing but sadly not surprising” and said it is “vital” that funding for those standards is reviewed and increased.
“There’s no doubt that completing an apprenticeship provides a solid foundation for a career in the early years, but currently it can be costly for settings and training providers which, in turn, act as a disincentive.”
Freeston said that the combination of demanding hours and low pay deterred people from joining the sector, but said the organisation has also found that it can be difficult for employers to take on apprentices.
“Course requirements often incur additional expenses which are not completely covered by funding,” he said.
“The commitment to regular reviews and mentoring requirements can also place pressure on settings, especially when they are already facing limited budgets and limited resources due to sustained sector underfunding.”
The alliance reported that many training providers have stopped offering level 2 apprenticeship courses because the income did not match the cost of delivery.
The level 3 early years educator apprenticeship standard was introduced in 2019, while the education and childcare T Level was among the first three T Levels to be launched in September 2020, and includes a minimum of nine weeks on placement with an employer, or 21 weeks for the early years educator specialism.
In 2021, the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education approved a level 5 early years lead practitioner apprenticeship to provide more career progression for those who had achieved a level 3 apprenticeship in the sector.
Does CPD really lead to benefits on the ‘front line’?
The worlds of education and business are evolving. Educators must keep up if young people are to find rewarding careers, so that employers can recruit the talent needed to drive performance and improve competitiveness. It is this ‘skills edge’ that will help the future economy to thrive, attracting inward investment so that the UK can compete better globally. WorldSkills UK is working as part of the WorldSkills international movement of over 80 countries driving up standards worldwide and promoting future workforces that will serve young people, employers and communities, improving social and financial mobility around the world.
WorldSkills UK has developed a suite of CPD sessions called, ‘Developing excellence in teaching and training’, developed in partnership with ETF and applicable across a wide range of curriculum disciplines, based on our experience at the cutting edge of professional development. Held on 1 and 2 February, this event will draw on WorldSkills UK’s insights from international competitions, best practice exchanges and standard-setting for curricula.
Using knowledge from national and international experts across a wide range of skills and streamed via an interactive online platform, the sessions will support you and your colleagues in developing your knowledge, understanding and skills as well as those of your students and apprentices.
By taking part, you’ll help move your learners from competence to excellence, learn more about the latest advances in learning technology, and examine how to support learners from underrepresented groups.
I want to do more CPD but how can I fit it into my busy schedule?
You can opt into just one session or as many as you like. Opting into a minimum of two during the live stream you will receive a digital credential to share with your networks and incorporate into your portfolio. All content will be downloadable after the event, so you can revisit or share the link with colleagues.
Practical applications for achieving excellence with learners:
Understand WorldSkills UK’s seven step pedagogy cycle and related activities for use in a classroom or workshop environment.
Using world-class standards to enrich curriculum planning and enhance learner achievement:
Understand what WorldSkills occupational standards are and what their purpose is.
Competition activity as a method of raising learner aspirations and outcomes:
Experience the benefits of engaging in skills competition activity to individual learners, institutions and businesses.
Coaching techniques for supporting learners in developing effective behaviours and attitudes:
Learn coaching methodologies for supporting learners to achieve excellence.
Effective curriculum delivery to support meeting the needs of industry and net zero:
Gain insight into international best practice at reducing waste and increasing sustainability across vocational skill areas.
How do I book my free place?
Simply register with our quick-to-complete form and you’re ready to go.
Will I get an accreditation for taking part?
WorldSkills UK will award a digital credential to all those who attend two or more sessions, but we’re sure you’ll want to stay longer.
This verified digital credential demonstrates your commitment to professional development and embedding world-class practice into your teaching and can be shared across your professional networks including LinkedIn, bios, and CVs.
Who’s behind the programme?
To produce the programme, WorldSkills UK has partnered with the Education & Training Foundation (ETF), the workforce development body for the Further Education and Training sector. ETF works in partnership with others to deliver professional learning and development for teachers, trainers and leaders to improve education and training for learners aged 14 and over. The Society for Education and Training (SET) is ETF’s membership body, dedicated to professionals working across further education, vocational teaching and training.
We are also grateful to our session partners, the Skills and Education Group, Autodesk and Electude.
What other opportunities are there to enhance my teaching practice?
Competition-based training programmes: Each year, over 3,500 students and apprentices across England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland hone their technical skills in our competition-based programmes, as well as the personal skills that employers look for when recruiting young people, such as communication, planning, teamwork, self-reliance and resilience. 97% of competitors in our National Finals say that taking part has improved their technical skills, and 93% felt their self-confidence had grown. We can help you embed competitions in your teaching to encourage your students to take more responsibility for their own development and to be more aspirational in developing their skills. Applications for the 2023 competition are accepted from 27 February until 24 March 2023 and it’s free to enter and take part.
Those competitors making it to the National Finals have the chance to win medals as an endorsement of their skill level. They also have the opportunity to be selected for Squad UK, from which Team UK is drawn to compete on the global stage. In the WorldSkills Special Editions in 2022, the UK scored gold medals in aircraft maintenance and cabinet making, plus bronzes in Industry 4.0, jewellery making, and car painting. Half of Team UK also achieved medallions for excellence, indicating they had reached WorldSkills’ international standards of excellence. The UK achieved a top ten place overall, up two places from the last international competition in Kazan, Russia, and ahead of countries including Spain, Singapore, Australia and Canada.
While winning medals is important for the participants and their colleges and employers, the benefits of the training programme for them and other members of Squad and Team UK can’t be overestimated as they return to the workforce with improved technical and employability skills, becoming valuable role models for their peers by passing on the skills they have learned, so that the benefits of training are cascaded through the workforce.
Learning Lab:WorldSkills UK’s Learning Lab is a new online space and resource centre which provides free access to world-class skills development tools and resources for all.
Content is built on WorldSkills UK’s insights into international best practice, supporting educators to supercharge both their professional development and teaching skills and equipping them to boost student learning and develop world-class skills.
Easy to navigate, the Learning Lab offers a wide range of teaching tools and resources, from advice on careers education to mindset masterclasses, based on world-class practice from the world of elite sports training and development. Fresh resources will be continually added over time.
Careers Advice Toolkit
Mapped against the Careers Development Institute, Skills Builder and Gatsby Benchmark Frameworks, the Careers Advice Toolkit empowers young people to explore excellence within technical and apprenticeship career pathways. With inspiring bitesize content, the Toolkit can be used flexibly to support independent online learning, as well as any careers curriculum, delivered in the classroom or virtually.
Spotlight Talks
Designed to fit within lesson timetables, the Spotlight Talks video series brings together leading businesses and services to demonstrate young professionals sharing their own career journeys and what it takes to succeed in their sector. The next Spotlight Talks are in spring 2023 and we encourage viewers to pose questions directly to the presenters. All Spotlight Talks are available for download afterwards, so your students and apprentices don’t miss these inspiring and informative sessions. Check out existing downloads here.
Future programmes
We’re committed to continuing to provide educators with high-quality, free to access CPD opportunities. If you would like to be kept informed of new live and digital opportunities that can fit in with your timetable, email us at: getintouch@worldskillsuk.org
WorldSkills UK’s chief executive Dr Neil Bentley-Gockmann is stepping down from his role after seven years at the helm.
The organisation – an independent charity which supports young people in global Olympics-style skills competition – said a smooth transition has been planned.
Bentley-Gockmann will step down as chief executive in May, but WorldSkills UK confirmed he will remain a member of the board through a transition period.
Taking the interim chief executive post before a permanent successor is appointed will be Ben Blackledge, currently deputy chief executive with eight years at WorldSkills on his CV.
Bentley-Gockmann is leaving to take up the chief executive position at the Whitehall & Industry Group – an independent charity which brings together business, government, not-for-profit organisations and academics to share learning.
He had been a board member of the organisation for two years until December.
“It’s been a real privilege to lead WorldSkills UK over the past seven years and to help grow its impact nationally and internationally,” Bentley-Gockmann said.
“While I am looking forward to my leadership next step, I am of course sad to move on from a fantastic organisation with a brilliant team doing such important, life-changing work.”
He added that the work of the team meant WorldSkills UK is “improving training standards through mainstreaming international best practice, championing future skills to align with rapidly changing economic needs and empowering more young people, from all backgrounds, to succeed in work and life”.
WorldSkills UK is one of 85 nations in the global WorldSkills network which works to use international best practice to improve standards, and showcase the talents of young learners in the UK in technical education and apprenticeships.
Under Bentley-Gockmann’s tenure, the UK crept back into the top 10 for the global medals tables in the 2022 competition, delayed from 2021 because of the Covid-19 pandemic. At the prior competition in 2019, the UK finished 12th, with a 10th placing in 2017.
Among some of the other achievements for the organisation under his tenure have been establishing the centre for excellence in partnership with NCFE and the learning lab, producing a series of key reports on skills development and employer needs, and securing the UK’s position in the top 10 once again for the global WorldSkills competition medal table.
Marion Plant, chair of the board at WorldSkills UK, thanked Bentley-Gockmann for his “transformational” leadership over the last seven years, explaining that he has positioned the organisation as “a unique and innovative contributor to the UK skills systems” which had bettered the lives of “countless students, apprentices, further education staff and other partners”.
She added: “The respect in which WorldSkills UK is held nationally and internationally has grown significantly under his leadership, and we are well placed now to grow and to deepen our impact within the UK skills systems.”
Bentley-Gockmann took up his role at WorldSkills in November 2015. Prior to that he served various roles at the Confederation of British Industry over 11 years, including policy director, deputy director-general and chief operating officer.
According to his LinkedIn profile, Bentley-Gockmann studied French, German and European politics at Cardiff University in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, staying on to do a PHD on race equality in the workplace.
In 2013 the West Belfast-born businessman studied on the authentic leadership programme at Harvard Business School.
He has also held a number of board positions since the early 2000s, including at the aforementioned Whitehall and Industry Group for two years until December, as well as three years on the board at the University of Warwick and for three years at Stonewall until January 2015 where he was also deputy chair.
Board positions at BusinessEurope and The Carbon Trust are also on his CV.
Increased funding rates for “priority” adult education courses have been revealed by the Education and Skills Funding Agency.
But functional skills courses in English and maths will not see any base increase.
The government’s delayed reforms to adult education funding bring together multiple funding streams to a single new skills fund in 2024/25. Ministers have said reforms are designed to simplify the system and incentivise “priority” skills.
New rates will apply to ESFA grant funded and procured provision, with mayors in devolved areas setting their own rates.
Courses under the new skills fund will be organised along five new hourly bands that range from £6 to £12 by their sector subject area.
This replaces the current “single activity matrix” which organises funding along fifteen possible funding bands.
Under the new system from 2024/25, courses in travel and tourism will attract the lowest base rate of £6 per hour and engineering the high rate of £9.60 per hour.
There is a higher “specialist” band of £12 per hour for certain land-based courses, however officials are still reviewing which subjects receive the “specialist” band and which receive the “high” funding band.
The hourly band is then multiplied by a qualification’s guided learning hours to give a funding rate. Adjustments for disadvantage and area costs will apply as they do now.
For example, a diploma in engineering is 360 guided learning hours and currently receives £2,583. From 2024/25, the new funding rate for this qualification will be £3,456, calculated as follows: £9.60 (the new hourly skills funding rate for engineering sector subject area) multiplied by 360 guided learning hours.
Courses which are eligible under the government’s free courses for jobs offer will continue to receive extra funding: £600 for qualifications at or above 360 guided learning hours and £150 for courses at 359 guided learning hours or below.
The announcements isn’t all good news for providers delivering functional skills English and maths courses, which have been confirmed today to continue to be funded at their current rates.
New digital qualifications though will be funded by the new band for ICT for users, which is £8.40, meaning funding for a 55 guided learning hour qualification will increase to £462 from the current £336 for the functional skills ICT qualification.
Access to higher education courses will also be moved to the new five band system depending on their subject area.
Skills minister Robert Halfon said: “We are simplifying the way we fund skills training for adults so that more people can climb the ladder of opportunity into well paid jobs, and we can better meet the skills needs of employers and the economy.
“Our new funding reforms will ensure we are targeting money at the subjects and sectors with the greatest skills need, while giving providers the flexibility to develop innovative training solutions that work for their local communities.”
A cross-party group of Lords have urged the education secretary to withdraw “disastrous” plans to axe funding for recently reformed applied general qualifications.
Six peers, including two former education secretaries and two ex-universities minister, warn that scrapping these “popular” alternatives to A-levels and T Levels would have a damaging impact on social mobility, economic growth and public services.
Writing to Gillian Keegan, the Lords “express deep concerns” and “disappointment” that commitments made to them about the scale of the government’s level 3 reforms “do not appear to have been met”.
The letter follows an FE Week article and Protect Student Choice campaign analysis which revealed more than half of the 134 applied general qualifications, like BTECs, currently available to and taken by around 200,000 young people and included in the DfE’s performance league tables would be ineligible for funding from 2025.
It comes despite then education secretary Nadhim Zahawi promising the sector and Parliament through the passage of the skills and post-16 education bill that “only a small proportion of the total level 3 BTEC and other applied general style qualification offer – significantly less than half” would be removed.
The Lords said: “We were reassured to hear that only a small proportion of applied general qualifications would be removed, and in return were happy to lend our support to the skills and post-16 education bill.
“However, it now appears that many more than a small proportion of these qualifications will be defunded.”
The letter pressed that qualifications facing the axe, which include health and social care, science, IT and business, are “popular with students, respected by employers and valued by universities”.
“Removing them will have a disastrous impact on social mobility, economic growth and our public services.
“For example, it is difficult to think of a worse time to scrap the extended diploma in health and social care. Given their importance to the healthcare workforce, it would be very damaging to the NHS to remove funding for these qualifications.”
Signatories to the letter include former education secretaries David Blunkett and Ken Baker, former education ministers David Willetts and Jo Johnson, deputy speaker of the House of Lords Sue Garden, and Labour peer Mike Watson.
The Lords said there is “no need to remove these qualifications in order to ‘streamline the qualifications landscape’”, especially as the 134 applied generals were “reformed more recently than A-levels and are smaller in number”.
“While some are available in similar subjects to A -levels or T Levels, they are a different type of qualification that provide a different type of educational experience,” the letter added.
It concluded: “We urge you to withdraw the 134 applied general qualifications from the scope of your review.
“Retaining these recently reformed and approved qualifications would enable your department to focus on areas where there are genuine concerns about duplication or quality. In doing so you would retain a vital pathway to higher education and employment for tens of thousands of young people and provide schools, colleges and universities with the much-needed certainty they require to plan for the future.”
Bill Watkin
Bill Watkin, chief executive of the Sixth Form Colleges Association that is co-ordinating the Protect Student Choice, said: “Unless the government reverses this decision, and starts to incorporate some evidence and transparency into its policymaking, tens of thousands of students will be left without a pathway to higher education or employment, and many employers will be left without the skilled workforce they need.”
A DfE spokesperson said: “Our reforms will simplify the system for young people, with popular BTECs continuing to be available alongside A levels and T Levels.
“The BTECs that will no longer be available are only those with low take up, poor outcomes, or which overlap with T Levels. We have also introduced a transition year to support students who may have taken BTECs, into T Level qualifications.
“We are committed to creating a world class education system that provides a ladder up for all and gives young people the skills and knowledge to prepare them for higher education and the world of work.”
Pictured above from left: Lord Willetts, Lord Johnson, Baroness Garden, Lord Baker, Lord Blunkett and Lord Watson
Talks have begun between a college and university in the Midlands for a “pioneering” tie-up that will see a further education company formed as part of the university group.
North Warwickshire and South Leicestershire College and Coventry University have launched discussions about the college joining the university group.
While the details of what that may look like are still being ironed out, college and university chiefs said it would not be a formal merger akin to others in recent years.
College principal and chief executive Marion Plant said “strong assurances” had been given “about the maintenance of high levels of autonomy of leadership and governance for the college within the group”.
University provost Ian Dunn said it would be an “education group, so not the college being a subsidiary but being an educational partner”.
The college and university already have a partnership with the college’s MIRA Technology Institute, while it also has a digital skills academy based at the university’s tech park in Coventry city centre.
Plant said: “That partnership has just proven that, by having a seamless join-up, we can respond better, more swiftly, and in a more agile way not just to industry partners but individuals trying to navigate the education system and find a sustainable career.”
The two institutions are working with the Education and Skills Funding Agency (ESFA) and the Office for Students on the plans.
With talks at an early stage, plenty of details are still to be addressed, although it is hoped more specifics will be available in the spring.
Among the issues will be the arrangements for the Midland Academies Trust, an independent charity established by the college.
The university group already has the Better Futures multi-academy trust, but Dunn said the trusts’ arrangements were among details to be worked on.
Chiefs also said it was too early to say what the tie-up could mean for provision, but there were ambitions for students to have a “line of sight” to their future.
Dunn said: “It’s a map – it’s not tramlines, you are not forcing someone to stay on that.”
He added: “It’s about the future – it’s about 10 years out thinking what’s going to be fit for the future in terms of local development and education.”
North Warwickshire and Hinckley College merged with South Leicestershire College in 2016, but in 2018 the merged college was given a financial notice to improve by the ESFA.
At the time the college explained it was a consequence of delivering £1 million of unfunded teaching in 2017/18 due to the funding methodology and a decline in apprenticeship income.
ESFA college accounts said it owed £2.5 million in exceptional financial support in 2016/17, with loans of £14.2 million outstanding.
The ESFA closed the financial notice to improve in July 2020. According to its accounts for 2021/22, the college made a £619,000 operating surplus.
Plant said the university tie-up plans were “pioneering” and “not driven by any financial imperative”. She said that “all the feedback from external stakeholders has been incredibly positive” but recognised any change could be disruptive so would make that a priority.
In 2018, the University of Bolton and Bolton College merged. The existing college corporation was dissolved and a new limited company formed with the university as its sole member, effectively giving the university ultimate control.
Lambeth College merged with London South Bank University in 2019 in a move which saw the college corporation close and a new company formed as a wholly-owned subsidiary of the university.
In 2021, the National College for Advanced Transport and Infrastructure became a subsidiary of the University of Birmingham, before Ruskin College was acquired as a subsidiary of the University of West London that same year.
In addition, Hartpury College attained university status and became a higher education company in 2018, changing its name to Hartpury University and Hartpury College. In that arrangement, its FE provision – Hartpury College of Further Education – became a subsidiary company to the higher education corporation.
Albert Einstein once said the definition of insanity is ‘repeating the same mistakes over and over again, expecting to get different results.’ At the Department for Education it appears ministers and senior officials might now be backtracking on solemn qualification reform commitments made to a cross-party group of peers, at the time of the skills bill deliberations.
Two former education secretaries – true titans of the post-war era – joined forces in the upper house during the passage of the legislation.
Conservative, Lord Baker and Labour’s Lord Blunkett, pointed out that England won’t be able to build a genuinely world-class secondary education system by trashing many existing, perfectly good qualifications in the process.
A change of ministers at Sanctuary Buildings helped ensure a rather more delicate consensus emerged.
It included the notion that alongside A-levels and T Levels, 16-19 year olds in England, in future, would still be able to pursue tried and tested qualifications like BTECs and other applied general qualifications.
That didn’t mean the culling of all qualifications at level 3 and below would cease. Quals that overlap directly with government-owned qualifications are already being removed.
But it did represent a breakthrough in the idea that government was seriously listening and responding to heartfelt concerns about learner choice.
This tentative cross-party agreement is now seriously under strain.
It means an incoming Labour government, riding high in the polls, could decide to break cover and openly oppose many of the post-16 reforms.
Dogma over delivery
Taking fright from any major political escalation, those in the FE delivery ecosystem could simply decide to go slow, effectively strangling the reforms, via a thousand tardy excuses as to why rollouts can’t go ahead as planned.
The fact the whole qualifications reform timetable straddles the febrile general election period should make senior officials wary of being seen to be too servile in their desire to please incumbent political masters.
We all know what happened to 14-19 Diplomas in 2010, when an incoming government applied the kibosh. Public money was wasted. Thousands of learners were issued with certificates which are now worthless in the labour market.
It’s why newly promoted to the cabinet, Gillian Keegan, is in danger of snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
As skills minister, Keegan developed a reputation for placing dogma over delivery; ideological purity, over the inevitable pragmatism of what is required in high-office, particularly when government launches a controversial set of reforms.
I still have confidence that the education secretary will not renege on the letter from her predecessor to Parliamentarians, sent on the eve of the Skills Bill becoming law.
Any politician with an eye on their legacy is not going to crudely rip up what amounted in July 2022 to an important shift in level 3 policy.
Not least because history is never kind to politicians who engage in what Lord Baker called at the time, “educational vandalism”.
Voters won’t forgive education reform done badly
The experience of T Levels last summer and its ongoing fallout should be enough to caution ministers that, in the end, parents and learners will decide the fate of these reforms.
One misstep could bring the whole reform crashing down.
Already we’re hearing stories from FE providers of students transferring from the first year of T levels onto other courses.
The government may think the easy answer is to hunker down and carry on regardless.
They would be mistaken to put too much faith in a bureaucratic qualification approvals process at level 3 that is designed to manipulate the quals marketplace so egregiously, that it will leave students – particularly disadvantaged students – with nowhere to go.
Voters have memory. Everyone has an opinion about education because it is the one common shared experience that shapes us all.
People are not going to let go of vocational qualifications that their brothers, sisters, aunties and nieces have taken for decades. No more than we can expect Middle England to suddenly give up on A-levels, around since 1951.
In 533 Parliamentary constituencies across England, voters will want to know why a Conservative government has obliterated course choices and educational opportunity for young people.
On the doorstep, voters will ask why local sixth form colleges are operating a system of educational apartheid, with students forced to choose either an academic or the new technical routes.
The 1944 Education Act ultimately failed because society moved on. The comprehensive principle replaced learner segregation.
History tells us that education reform is only lasting when everyone comes together in the national interest, rather than pursuing some narrow agenda built on outdated dogma.
A “slightly shorter type” of apprenticeship could be explored to help get over-50s to retrain or back into work, the chancellor suggested today.
Jeremy Hunt voiced ambitions for conversations with education secretary Gillian Keegan on that idea to address out-of-work adults and aid the government’s economic growth plans.
Speaking at Bloomberg this morning, the chancellor said that education would be one of the four pillars of his economic growth plans, admitting that “we don’t do nearly as well for the 50 per cent of school leavers who do not go to university as we do for those that do”.
Hunt also said that there were around nine million adults with low basic literacy or maths skills and more than 100,000 school leavers each year who had not reached required standards in maths or English, which made it difficult for those people when they may need to train for several different occupations over the course of their lives.
He continued that the government had “made progress with T Levels, bootcamps and apprenticeships” as part of its reforms, explaining that “we want to ensure our young people have the skills they would get in Switzerland or Singapore”.
The chancellor said that encouraging older workers back into the workforce or helping them to retrain is one of the issues to help growth, issuing a rallying call to the more than five million working age adults who are economically inactive that “Britain needs you”.
Hunt said that would include looking at more occupational health support to help prevent those with mental health needs, back problems and other health conditions from leaving work.
But apprenticeships, which have a legal 12-month minimum duration requirement, could also be in scope for those plans.
“When it comes to apprenticeships, there is a sense that apprenticeships are for young people, but there are lots of people who are ready and willing to consider a new career in their early 50s,” he said following his speech.
“They are expecting to work potentially for another 20 years, and they might need a slightly different type of apprenticeship, a slightly shorter type of apprenticeship, and I think that could be very good.”
He added that it is “a dialogue with Gillian Keegan we very much hope to pursue”.
Economic inactivity among over-50s has hit the headlines in recent months, with work and pensions secretary Mel Stride telling MPs in November that he was looking for “quick wins” to get over-50s who have had health issues back into work.
The skills bootcamps programme was one such scheme set-up to deliver quick skills training in sectors where shortages are at their most acute, such as in lorry driving, digital and construction.
The 12-to-16-week courses are available for those aged 19 and above, and guarantee an interview with an employer at the end of the course.
Data published last month revealed that the government had exceeded its target for skills bootcamps between April 2021 and March 2022, securing 16,120 starts against a planned 16,000 for the short courses.
Data on number of completers for that period was not released, however.
Director of Finance and Corporate Services, Newcastle Stafford Colleges Group
Start date: January 2023
Previous Job: Director of Finance and Operations, The Grange School
Interesting fact: Debbie enjoys spending time with her family and friends, visiting new cities and running. She hopes in the near future to start running with her 18 month old, 43kg Rhodesian Ridgeback dog called Simba who she is busy training currently
Carly Sidebottom
Director of Employability, Learning Curve Group
Start date: January 2023
Previous Job: Head of ESF and AEB, Ixion
Interesting fact: Carly is a keen snowboarder and goes every year with her family. Her daughter has been on the snow since she was three and is now a better boarder than Carly (she is only 9 and leaves and her father for dust)
