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Do Apprenticeships hold the key to Levelling Up the UK?

The Levelling Up agenda outlined by the government has been devised to address stark inequalities across the country, both geographically and in terms of people’s social and economic backgrounds.

London and the South-East remain the wealthiest areas with a highly educated, highly skilled workforce and well-paying jobs, with many other parts of the country left behind.

In their February whitepaper, the government outlined the steps that they intend to take to address these inequalities, with a focus on improving transport infrastructure, creating well paid jobs to boost salaries and living standards across the UK and rolling out high speed broadband nationwide.

These goals are certainly laudable and ambitious, and achieving them will depend, in no small part, on ensuring that people have access to the skills and training necessary to develop infrastructure and to take on the highly skilled jobs that the government aims to create.

We know that many of the sectors essential to meeting the infrastructure goals of the Levelling Up agenda are facing significant skills shortages, with more new job openings set to appear in the coming years.

In addition to playing a vital role in developing the infrastructure needed to achieve the government’s Levelling Up goals, these sectors also have the potential to offer sustainable, well-paying jobs with the potential for career progression and professional development.

The role of apprenticeships

The question, of course, is how to equip people with the skills needed to fill them?

Apprenticeships have historically been an effective way for people, particularly those from deprived backgrounds, to achieve higher wages and social mobility, as well as creating a talent pipeline for key industries and sectors. However, since the introduction of the apprenticeship levy in 2017, this career pathway has actually become less accessible for many people.

The vital role of apprenticeships in addressing inequality is arguably becoming even more important in light of the rising cost of university education (£9,250 per year), excluding many from low-income backgrounds who are wary of taking on debt early in their careers. Apprenticeships, offering the opportunity to ‘earn while you learn’ represent a valuable alternative offering financial security and strong career prospects.

At City & Guilds we have been championing apprenticeships for many years, and fully supported the switch to employer led standards in 2017. Since then we have supported, assessed and certified over 40,000 apprentices in conjunction with colleges, training providers and employers. Central to our approach is to help and support our delivery partners to provide each apprentice with the resources they need from start to finish. By offering a range of digital learning and assessment preparation resources, we are able to provide apprentices the best chance of success.

Success stories:

Lewis Postlethwaite – Started with Gen2 in 2006 as a Mechanical Apprentice

Lewis Postlethwaite is a determined individual who started his career as a mechanical apprentice at Gen2 at 16 and has gone on to have an amazing engineering career across the world, despite being diagnosed with dyslexia.

Following his completion of a 2 year apprenticeship programme with Gen2 where he developed his fundamental engineering skills, Lewis went on to complete an ONC, HNC and HND before going on to complete a four year master’s degree in mechanical engineering.

From there he went on to secure a position on the Morgan Advanced Materials graduate programme, a role which took him first to North Wales, then onto the USA and currently to South Korea where he is working as a technology manager.

Lewis is an example of what can be achieved through drive and determination and the potential apprenticeships have of helping people into outstanding careers.

Reskilling opportunities for a broader range of Adult workers

If the Levelling Up goal of tackling economic inequality is to be achieved, then apprenticeships will have to offer an accessible route to a better future for people from all economic and social backgrounds. A review of the current Levy system to expand the use of funds to include other forms of workplace training would be an effective way to open up opportunities for a wider range of people.

Apprenticeships are, of course, not the only potential solution when it comes to equipping the workforce with the skills needed to tackle the levelling up agenda.

Particularly for older workers in declining industries who are looking to move into a new sector, long term training which is either unpaid or paying a lower wage may not be suitable. In addition, people in this position may well have extensive skills and experience which can be applied to a new industry with relatively little additional training.

City & Guilds ‘Step Into’ courses and our wider Skills Bridges initiative aim to cater to people in this position, offering them the opportunity to acquire sector specific skills to build on their existing experience. These courses are delivered in a bite-size formant and make use of hybrid classroom and online learning to make them as accessible as possible while still offering valuable face to face training.

This kind of bite-size training to help people develop key sector-specific skills and knowledge is particularly important when considering the findings of our Great Jobs report. Older workers, those aged 55+, were the least likely to feel positive regarding the skills they had attained offering them positive future career prospects (44%). The same group was the most likely to have gone more than 10 years without receiving any workplace training.

Efforts and funding to create career paths for younger people will form a vital part of achieving the government’s levelling up goals. However, older workers must not be neglected when it comes to putting pathways in place to develop the skills to transition into growing industries. Short-term, accessible training can provide a vital stepping-stone towards achieving this.

Short, sharp learning interventions – introducing Skills Bootcamps

Skills Bootcamps offer a similar short-form approach to equipping people with skills to provide them with a leg-up into high-demand sectors, or to enable employed people to upskill themselves to qualify for a higher-skilled role. Again, these provide a training solution for people who are not in a financial position to take on longer-term full time training, while still providing skills training in high growth technical fields, such as electric vehicle maintenance, construction and retrofitting.

Our own Rail Bootcamps, delivered in partnership with South Rail Systems Alliance, have helped learners to develop core competencies in the rail industry, with roles such as Plant Operator, Trackman and Track Operative available for learners who completed and passed the assessment. With the government’s ambitious plans to develop infrastructure and transport links as one of the key goals of the Levelling Up agenda, these short, intensive courses have the potential to train people with the necessary skills to achieve them as well as helping them move into well paid, sustainable careers.

Fostering social mobility

If the issue of economic inequality across the UK is to be successfully tackled, then a strong skills foundation will be vital to growing the industries and creating the infrastructure that can achieve this goal. Apprenticeships have played a vital historic role in fostering social mobility and growing regional industries, and they have the potential to do so again. By adopting hybrid digital delivery, not only for apprenticeships but for other short-form training, in tandem with a review of the funding model for skills training to ensure that it is truly available for all, the Levelling Up agenda can be made a reality.

To learn more about how City & Guilds can support you with apprenticeships visit www.cityandguilds.com/apprenticeships

Times Education Commission adds voice to calls for new ‘baccalaureate’

A high-profile education commission has added its voice to calls for a new baccalaureate that mixes academic and vocational qualifications – estimated to cost the government an extra £1.2 billion a year.

Ministers are also being called on to open more “satellite” university wings in colleges in deprived parts of the country, as well as to launch the technical equivalent to “elite” academic sixth forms outlined in the levelling up white paper.

The recommendations are part of a 12-point plan from the Times Education Commission following a year-long inquiry, which has been backed by ten former education secretaries and two former prime ministers.

The commission, chaired by Times columnist Rachel Sylvester, said it found that the British education system is “failing on every measure” from early years to lifelong learning and is in dire need of overhaul.

First on the commission’s 12-point plan to “fix” the system is a “British Baccalaureate”, which would offer “broader academic and vocational qualifications at 18”. This would include “parity in funding” per pupil in both routes, and a “slimmed-down” set of exams at 16.

The idea of introducing a baccalaureate-style system in place of or alongside A-levels and T Levels has gathered pace in recent years. Various types of baccalaureates have been suggested by education select committee chair Robert Halfon, think-tank EDSK and the National Baccalaureate Trust.

Kirsti Lord, deputy chief executive at the Association of Colleges, said the idea for a British Baccalaureate is worth exploring “so students are not pushed into a binary choice between technical training and academic study at 16”.

Under the Times Education Commission’s proposal, the British Baccalaureate would be a customised version of the “tried and tested” International Baccalaureate, which is which has almost two million students around the world including about 4,500 in this country.

Students studying for the academic diploma programme would take six subjects — three major, three minor — covering both humanities and sciences as well as units on critical thinking, communication and creativity. Those on the career-related programme would combine learning, which could include BTECs or a T Level, with work experience, the commission proposed.

There would be the option for students to “mix and match” elements of both programmes to “create the qualification that best suited them”. All students would do an extended project, community service and some literacy and numeracy through to 18. Digital skills would be woven through the whole curriculum.

At 16, the commission suggests that pupils would take a slimmed-down set of exams in five core subjects, with continuous assessment as well as online tests contributing to their grade.

This would “allow children to progress to the next level and provide accountability for schools, but lower the stakes and reduce the amount of time spent on preparing for and taking exams”, according to today’s report.

The commission claimed that their proposed British Baccalaureate would introduce greater breadth and flexibility to the post-16 curriculum while also ending the “sheep and goats” division between academic and vocational education.

There would be a cost attached because the number of teaching hours would have to go up, however the commission has been advised by Whitehall sources that this could be met by equalising the per-student funding of 16 to 19-year-old education with the budgets for 11 to 16 education.

This would cost about £1.2 billion a year, according to the Institute for Fiscal Studies, and would also “remove a historic anomaly in the funding mechanism that dates to the time when the school leaving age was 16”.

‘Career academies’, satellite uni wings in colleges, and better FE staff pay also recommended

The commission also wants a new cadre of “career academies” to be introduced — elite technical and vocational sixth forms with close links to industry, mirroring the academic sixth forms that are being established under the government’s levelling up plans.

Career academies would have a focus on creativity and entrepreneurialism.

The AoC opposed this idea however, saying that the focus should be on providing better funding for colleges which “already deliver cutting edge skills for 1.7 million students day in, day out”.

New university campuses have also been called for in fifty higher education “cold spots”, including satellite wings in further education colleges.

The commission gave the example of how Nottingham Trent University has opened a campus in West Nottinghamshire College, offering courses in nursing, sports science and business.

“It is already recruiting students who would not otherwise have considered going to university and the local hospital is also grateful for the supply of qualified nurses who live in the area and so are more likely to stay,” according to the report.

“The government is setting up a false choice between higher and further education and there should be more collaboration rather than competition between the sectors,” commissioners said.

But Lord said there are already strong links between colleges and universities so rather than reinventing the wheel, the AoC would “urge government to work with colleges which already have an established reach into their communities to promote lifelong learning”.

The commission also called for improved pay and conditions in the FE sector and a transferrable credit system like the upcoming lifelong loan entitlement.

After the commission pointed out that lecturers in colleges are paid more than £9,000 less on average than teachers in schools, former Conservative education secretary and chancellor Lord Ken Clarke of Nottingham said FE colleges have always been the Cinderella of the education service.

“The teachers do an equally important job,” he said. “Their status and pay and conditions should roughly match that of people of the same quality in the school system.”

A Department for Education spokesperson said: “We thank the Times Education Commission for its report and always welcome new ideas and views from the sector and education experts.”

Strike votes open at 33 colleges

Strikes are on the cards at another 33 colleges as a dispute over low pay and “unmanageable” workload rages on.

Industrial ballots were opened by University and College Union branches across England (see full list below) today and will close on July 15.

It comes a month after the Association of Colleges recommended that its members offer staff a 2.25 per cent pay rise in 2022/23.

This was the highest pay recommendation since 2014, but well below the call from unions for a 10 per cent rise.

The UCU said that since 2009 college staff have seen their pay fall behind inflation by more than 35 per cent and three in four from a survey of more than 2,232 college staff say their workload has increased significantly over the past three years.

It is estimated by the joint trade unions that extra FE funding announcements in recent years mean that colleges now have an “additional £400 million that is completely free to spend on staff compared with 2019-20”.

But AoC chief executive David Hughes said that colleges cannot afford anything more than a 2.25 per cent pay rise next year because his members are “reeling from a decade of cuts and are now being hit by soaring inflation which has eaten away at any recent uptick in funding”.

Six colleges in the north west faced disruption during exams last month as staff took to the picket line to strike over pay. But two were called off after last-minute pay offers worth up to 7.5 per cent at Hopwood Hall College and 6 per cent at Bury College were accepted.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “Our members must not pay the price of sky-high inflation. We will not accept staff having pay held down whilst the cost of putting petrol in the tank, heating the home and feeding loved ones soars. With three in four staff also facing dangerously high workloads we have no choice but to proceed to a ballot for strike action.”

The 33 colleges being balloted are:

Abingdon and Witney College
Bath College
Blackburn College
Bournemouth and Poole College
Bournville College of FE
Bridgwater and Taunton College
Carlisle College
Chichester College Group – Chichester
Chichester College Group – Crawley
City College Plymouth
City of Bristol College
Croydon College
Derby College
East Sussex Cllege Group – Hastings
East Sussex College Group (SDC)
Exeter College
Halesowen College
Hereward College of FE
Lambeth College
Lewisham College – Deptford
Lewisham College – Lewisham Way
New College Swindon
Newcastle College
Sandwell College of FHE
South & City College Birmingham
Southwark College
Sparsholt College Hampshire (inc Andover College)
Strode College
Truro and Penwith College
West Lancashire College
Weston College
Wiltshire College
Yeovil College

Focus feature: Women principals leaving a legacy in FE

This year numerous top female college principals are stepping down after giving their professional lives to the FE sector.

Jess Staufenberg sits down with three of them, all of whom have been awarded OBEs and been nationally recognised for their pioneering work. What are the highs and lows of leadership?

Karen Dobson, chief executive, Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group

Tell us a bit about your background

I was born in Stoke-on-Trent, and my mum worked in a pottery factory and my dad was a lathe engineer. My secondary school had been a boys’ school and I was in the first year it went comprehensive. Looking back, I don’t think they had much interest in what the girls were going to do as a career. Some teachers were pretty horrendous – there was still the cane and the slipper and people throwing blackboard rubbers at you – but I had a really good history teacher, and generally pretty good sports teachers. After school I went to The Elms, which is now part of Stoke-on-Trent College, and then I went to work in a bank, which I absolutely hated. So I trained as a nurse. After that, I taught in the health and social care department at Cauldon College, which later became Stoke-on-Trent College.

What do you remember about your principal’s interview?

I came to the old Newcastle-under-Lyme College as director of curriculum, under Frances Wittering, the principal, who was a great role model. When she retired, I applied. I remember the chair telling me I’d got the job, and I probably looked a bit shocked. I was pleased, but you do think, ‘oh god, what do I do now?’.

What’s changed among the students?

Some young people nowadays almost face more challenges than when I started in FE. I think there’s almost too much out there about what the ideal young man or woman should be. You have to be quite strong not to just follow. I think there’s probably also something about today’s young people not being as resilient. There aren’t many opportunities to be on your own, fall down and recover. But I don’t think we can blame young people for that – we as adults have made the world that way for them.

What’s been the biggest change in FE policy?

The biggest single change has to be in adult learning. When I came into FE, adult education was a big thing that was properly funded. Evening school was much more of a routine for many adults. In the past 10 years or more, the removal of funding means FE colleges now have far fewer adults in them.

What has been your biggest challenge or darkest moment?

Probably Covid – closing up on March 20. You didn’t know what was going to happen. The other big challenge was when we took over Stafford College, which was a grade 4. It felt, for almost 12 months, every stone you turned over there was a problem. There were lots of sleepless nights. But it was absolutely the right thing. The students get a great learning experience there now.

What will you look back on most proudly?

I was really proud of our new building at Newcastle College, which we opened in 2010. It shows what difference you can make to the lives of young people when they can come into a fantastic building. And then in 2019, we got Ofsted ‘outstanding’. I cried. The lead inspector gave me a big hug. The team were just brilliant.

Tenure: 2004-2022

Replacement principal: Craig Hodgson, current vice principal for finance.

Retirement plans: Gardening, playing tennis and perhaps volunteering with the college’s Institute of Technology.

Julie Mills, group principal, Milton Keynes College

Tell us a bit about your background

I grew up in Bedfordshire, where at the time schools didn’t have sixth forms, so it was either FE college or work. I went to Luton sixth form college for A levels, really didn’t enjoy it and left to get a job. My mum was a teacher and my dad was an engineer, and they were surprised I wasn’t following my brother to university. But instead I worked in the unemployment benefit office. Some people were in desperate circumstances, but some were retired bankers getting their national insurance paid. It was an early awakening for me about just how different people’s lives could be. Later, I did an Open University degree and taught a bookkeeping course. Then in 1990 I got a job as a finance lecturer at Milton Keynes College.

What do you remember from your interview?

They asked me, ‘what would you do if the rest of your senior team disagreed with you?’ So I said that given they would be experts in finance, HR and so on, I would listen to them. But the board wanted to know I was assertive, and I’d persuade them. Isn’t that interesting? A macho person would have given a ‘better’ response. However, I’d stand by my answer now.

How did you get into prison education?

Before Milton Keynes College I’d worked in training with NACRO, for the resettlement of offenders, helping them get employed. Then, when I was at Milton Keynes College, the college had a contract with Woodhill Prison and I got a job there as deputy head of education. I worked with some of the nation’s most notorious and violent offenders, but the mantra I have is, these people are someone’s family.

What are your biggest lessons from leadership?

Leadership is all about relationships, it’s all about using power right. Prisons are really good examples of how it can happen well, and badly. It’s a really good place to learn to be a leader.

The biggest lesson is that it’s not about winning. For prisoners, their world is so small that the smallest things can become massive and you need to respect that. So in terms of conflict, whether it’s an angry member of staff, student or stakeholder, it’s not about winning by asserting yourself, it’s about de-escalating. It’s about maturity.

What’s changed the most in FE?

I think the nature of FE has changed significantly because of austerity. Many colleges used to be quite a mixed environment, with adults. There’s a risk now they feel a much younger-person place. Workload is also significantly higher, and that is linked to funding too. When I started in FE, a full-time course would be 24 hours a week, and now it’s 15 or 16. But the qualification hasn’t changed. So there’s twice the number of students for staff and less time to support them in. It’s really important that’s understood by senior leaders.

What are you proudest of?

Probably securing the Institute of Technology funding. We’re reaching parts of the community that classic FE and classic HE never has in this area before.

Tenure: 2011-2022

Replacement principal: Recruitment process underway

Retirement plans: Flip flops and shorts for the rest of my life.

Corienne Peasgood, principal, City College Norwich

Tell us a bit about your background

I grew up just outside Cambridge; my mum worked in office administration and my dad was a plumber. I was lucky enough to get a scholarship to the private Perse School for girls, but when I told the careers adviser I wanted to be a plumbing and heating engineer, she made it clear that was not appropriate. That made me even more determined. At speech day, they read out where everyone was going to university and they got to me and just said, ‘Corienne is leaving’. I did a plumbing apprenticeship, before running my dad’s company. Later we moved to Norwich and when I was 35 with children, I saw an advert for a plumbing lecturer at City College Norwich. I got it!

What do you remember about your interview?

It was probably the most nervous I’d been for any roles I’d gone for, because I wanted it the most. At that point, I knew who I would be as a leader. Around the same time I was on an aspiring principals programme with Amanda Melton (Nelson & Colne College), and we’d both always worked in one college. People were implying we needed experience in other colleges, but I didn’t agree – I think there are huge advantages to having many of the roles in the organisation you’re going to lead. You need to build lots of external networks too.

Which students will stick with you?

There’s a photo on the wall in my office of a student called Jared, who was with us for five years. He started on a part-time functional skills maths programme, and he left us with five A levels and is now going on to his doctorate at the University of East Anglia. Previously, his special educational needs had defined him in at school, but with us, he didn’t just flourish academically, he took on all the additional student activities. He became our student governor and we awarded him student of the year. He eventually won adult student of the year at the Association of Colleges awards at the House of Commons. His mum was in floods of tears.

What changes have you seen in FE?

Our expectations around the quality of teaching and learning students receive is much higher now than when I started in 1997. I also don’t think there was that expectation for the wraparound and additional support, which is a change for the better.

What’s been your biggest challenge or darkest moment?

Before Covid, I thought we’d done the toughest thing. We’d gone through a demerger and merger involving three institutions, three sets of lawyers, three sets of financial advisers, the FE commissioner’s office, ESFA and DfE. I honestly thought I’d never do anything that difficult again. But Covid was harder. It was such high stakes. We could do everything right, and someone could still get very, very ill.

What are you proudest of?

I think as principals we’re custodians of organisations, aren’t we? You look at what you’re passing on, and I’m confident I’m passing on a very different college. It’s ready to respond to what’s next.

Tenure: 2012-2022

Replacement principal: Jerry White, current deputy principal

Retirement plans: Spending September in Italy. No plans after that!

DfE permanently scraps annual FE learner and employer satisfaction surveys

The annual FE choices learner satisfaction survey has been permanently axed, the Department for Education announced today.

The survey, which is usually taken by hundreds of thousands of students and has been running for most of the past decade, was paused in 2019/20 and 2020/21 due to the coronavirus outbreak.

In 2018/19, over 345,000 students and apprentices responded to questions about the quality of teaching, whether their support needs were met and whether they would recommend their college or training provider.

Announcing the decision to cancel the survey going forward, DfE chief statistician Neil McIvor said: “DfE does not intend to run the satisfaction survey again in its current form. DfE will instead be considering the most useful information to collect from learners that best supports the proposals laid out in last year’s public consultation document [Skills for Jobs: a new further education funding and accountability system] – taking into account the responses to that consultation.”

The funding and accountability framework consultation closed in October but the response has still not been released. It is therefore unclear exactly how learner feedback will be gathered and used in the future.

However, the consultation did propose introducing a new publicly available “performance dashboard”, which would provide a “performance snapshot of individual colleges for all interested parties and public scrutiny, as well as an overview of how well the local and national FE system is performing”.

The dashboard, if given the go ahead, would include a list of performance indicators that “reflect what excellent delivery looks like”, consisting of “student outcomes, employers’ and students’ experience, and how well a provider is engaging with meeting local skills needs”.

The FE choices employer satisfaction survey, which was also paused in 2019/20 due to Covid, has also been permanently canned, the DfE confirmed.

Today’s announcement comes a week after the DfE launched a new apprentice feedback tool, which followed a similar employer feedback tool that was introduced in 2019.

This is what I really said about social mobility

Social mobility is complex, as FE providers know. The Telegraph’s headline about my speech was the opposite of the truth, writes Katharine Birbalsingh

You may have read that last week we launched the “fresh approach” which we want the Social Mobility Commission to take over the next few years.

The Commission has a statutory duty to report to Parliament on social mobility and can make recommendations about areas to improve.

It has the potential to influence policy, and has done some excellent work in the past. We want to make it more effective and we want to shift the focus.

The headline which dominated on the day was the Telegraph’s rather odd spin, that “Working class people should aim ‘lower’ than Oxford” (the headline has since been changed).

This was not what was said or implied (you can see my speech here). In fact, quite the opposite.

You only have to look at the institutions my deputy chair and college principal Alun Francis and I both lead to see how high we encourage our students to aim.

We want them to be the very best they can be, and want to live in a world where no-one is held back by their background.

And we acknowledge that there is a lot of very important work going on, in schools, colleges and universities, and among employers, to improve the opportunities for people from disadvantaged backgrounds to excel.

It is fantastic that this is happening. But what we’re saying is… it is not enough.

Social mobility is a very complex term. People have their own ideas of what it means for them, but in sociology and economics, where much of the measurement work goes on, the definitions and data are complex.

And in policy terms, the problem of social mobility is usually framed in a particular way.

It tends to focus on a very small group of very talented people making huge leaps from the ‘bottom’ to the ‘top.’

Of course we should strive for this to happen as much as possible – and indeed my own sixth form is all about getting disadvantaged kids into Oxbridge and Russell Group Universities.

But there’s also brilliant work being done in the FE sector with young people who are achieving other things and who have different talents.

Not everyone can or wants to be a rich banker in the City

Well done to the FE providers supporting those 16 year olds who leave school without brilliant GCSES, who want to find something they are good at, and want to build a decent life in the place where they grew up – but either can’t or do not want to go to university!

And well done to those supporting adults returning to learning, who want to improve their literacy and numeracy or other basic skills, or their vocational competence.

These are precisely the people that further education is devoted to.

But while many working in FE have the best of intentions when it comes to social mobility, on the current measures, most of their efforts – and more importantly, most of what the learners achieve – do not show up in the measurements.

Their progress only gets counted as social mobility if they are among the exceptional few, who leap from the bottom to the top – usually through extremely high academic achievement.

The focus we want to bring to the Social Mobility Commission is how opportunities are being improved for everyone – but especially those who are often overlooked and ignored.

Some may want to say this is lowering expectations. But that’s not what we’re saying at all. High expectations are the foundation of great learning.

Aspiration matters too. Of course we want to celebrate those who go to Oxbridge or become top lawyers.

But we also want to celebrate those who don’t follow those routes. Life isn’t just about becoming a top banker in the City – we should celebrate that fact, and recognise that there are great achievements to be had in other careers and other parts of the country too.

Not everyone can or wants to be a rich banker in the City – but they still want opportunities.

And while we want to encourage and inspire everyone to be their best, we also need to avoid prejudiced views about occupational hierarchies and places – what a “good” job is or where you should aspire to live.

It really is great to see those who break from the circumstances in which they were born, to become stand out superstars in their chosen field.

But this isn’t only about the few who are academically excellent – it has to be about the wider range of talents which FE typically discovers.

AELP National Conference 2022 – Book your place now!

Taking place on Monday 27 and Tuesday 28 June, the 2022 AELP National Conference will be held at the Novotel London West. Kindly sponsored by The Skills Network, this flagship event in the calendar is a must-attend conference for anybody within the skills and employability sector.

We are delighted that this year’s conference will be chaired by Martine Croxall. Martine is a presenter with the BBC News and BBC World News TV channels.

She joined BBC News in May 2001 and began her broadcasting career in BBC local radio and regional TV where she worked in various roles. She now trains new TV presenters for the BBC’s Academy.

The conference is open to both AELP Members and Non-Members and you can book your place on our dedicated event website.

Updates and discussions will include key topical areas such as:

The apprenticeship levy under review – is the apprenticeship levy system and the levy itself meeting the needs of the economy, employers and apprentices?

A deep dive into what’s next after the Skills and Post-16 Education Act 2022 – the implementation of Local Skills Improvement Plans, the list of post-16 education or training providers, new responsibilities for the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education and much more.

Qualification Reforms at level 3 and below – understanding the changes to the qualifications landscape and what that means for learners, employers and providers.

As ever, AELP National Conference has a great line-up of keynote speakers covering some of the most interesting and important issues facing the sector. You can find out more about some of our speakers below.

Alex Burghart MP, Minister for Skills

Alex was elected as Conservative MP for Brentwood and Ongar on 8 June 2017. He served as Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Prime Minister between 2019 and 2021 before being appointed as a Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Department for Education in September 2021.

Tracy Brabin, West Yorkshire Mayor

Tracy Brabin was elected as the first Mayor of West Yorkshire, and the first ever woman Metro Mayor in England, in May 2021. During her campaign, Tracy pledged to create 1,000 skilled jobs for young people and lead a ‘Creative New Deal’ for the region. Born in Batley, West Yorkshire, Tracy was an actor and screenwriter prior to entering politics, appearing in several British soap operas and writing for several television series.

Kirsty Evans Deputy Director of Department for Education.

Kirsty has 25 years’ experience working in the post 16 education and skills system and is currently the Director of Post 16 Regions and FE Provider Oversight in the Department for Education. In that role she is responsible for effective oversight of the FE sector and FE providers, as well as the delivery of key place facing policy programmes such as Local Skills Improvement Plans and Institutes of Technology.

Jo Saxton Chief Regulator of Ofqual

Dr Jo Saxton became the Chief Regulator of Ofqual in September 2021 bringing a decade of experience in school leadership to the role. She has previously been a government advisor and was formerly an academic.

Anthony Impey MBE Chair of the Apprenticeship Ambassador Network.

Anthony Impey is the Chief Executive of Be the Business, a not-for-profit organisation that is working to transform the British economy by supporting small businesses boost their productivity. He also chairs the Department of Education’s Apprenticeship Ambassador Network and the City & Guilds Industry Skills Board.

Toby Perkins MP, Shadow Minister for Skills.

Toby Perkins has been the Labour Member of Parliament for Chesterfield since 2010. He has served in a number of frontbench roles and was appointed Shadow Minister for Apprenticeships and Lifelong Learning in 2020.

Workshops

Part of what makes AELP National Conference so special is our innovative and thought-provoking workshops hosted by leading sector experts. These workshops are a fantastic opportunity to network, hear vital updates and get involved in topical discussions affecting the Skills and Employability sector.

This year there will be a terrific selection of 50 workshops to choose from over the two days of the conference. All of these will share best practice and knowledge, with the opportunity to discuss the topic and ask pertinent questions about the issue at hand.

Gala Evening

Following Day One of the AELP National Conference, there will be a pre-dinner drinks reception and Gala Dinner. This provides excellent networking opportunities in a relaxed atmosphere and is well attended by both delegates and other conference attendees/exhibitors.

This year, the Gala Evening is open to conference delegates and non-attendees. The price includes the drinks reception, 3-course dinner, and live entertainment. All delegates should book their Gala Evening tickets at the time of booking conference places. Tickets for the Gala Dinner are not included with any complimentary conference places and therefore must be paid for separately.

AELP members can book a place for the Gala Evening only here, and non-members can book here.

We’re confident that our National Conference this year will be the best yet, so don’t delay – book your place today!

Why parents are the barrier to apprenticeship uptake

The challenge to apprenticeship uptake is the stigma of the route for parents, writes Ben Hansford

In the UK, university is still broadly viewed as the default path for school leavers. A university degree is seen as the most respected route for young jobseekers which, in the eyes of many, guarantees them a ‘successful’ job.

This is despite the fact that there has been a government focus on apprenticeships and other vocational routes into the workforce over the past few years as these have opened up to include a variety of skills, including technological and digital training.

However, even with a slowdown in apprenticeship starts through the pandemic, the programme has proved itself robust, and early indications show that apprenticeships are back on the rise and proving more popular than ever.

In 2019/20 alone, there were 719,000 people enrolled on an apprenticeship across England, with 322,500 apprenticeship starts and 146,900 apprenticeship achievements (the number of those who passed the end-point assessment).

Over 4.75 million apprenticeships were started over the past decade from May 2010 to January 2021. However, in 2020/21, 47 per cent of apprentices dropped out.

So it’s encouraging that employers such as Lloyds, HSBC and Asda offer apprenticeship programmes as a route into long careers.

But one of the main barriers to apprenticeship uptake in the UK is parents.

Ever since apprenticeships were reinvigorated ten years ago, the challenge has always been to remove the stigma of this route with parents. Parents remain the number one barrier to exponential growth in a proven route into a career.

Outdated views are stopping many school leavers from looking toward apprenticeships as a viable path into the workforce.

More than 60 per cent of parents of children aged 13 to 18 said they were concerned their child would be stuck ‘making the tea’ if they were to choose an apprenticeship, according to a 2020 survey by parent website Mumsnet.

Parents are still worried learners will be stuck making the tea

Parents need to be further informed and educated on the benefits of apprenticeships, the different types and exactly how they are run.

While government initiatives such as National Apprenticeship Week are great at raising awareness of apprenticeships among young people, without parental buy-in, young people may not get involved.

In fact research undertaken by the Association of Accounting Technicians in 2019 found that students feel they are being pushed down the route of going to university. Six out of ten students said their parents wanted them to pick that option.

The government and FE providers need to urgently rethink their apprenticeship strategies to target parents. This will help to combat the lack of information parents have regarding this route into work and relieve the stresses around whether a young adult is ready to take on a work or study programme.

To do so, here are the steps to take:

Widen the marketing strategy to target not only school leavers but parents too.
Lead with the fact that alongside more hands-on trade apprenticeships, there are professional and degree apprenticeships that span a variety of skills and sectors. Many parents don’t realise this.
The costs of university versus apprenticeships should be included. This is even more relevant given the news that students will now be paying 12 per cent interest on their university loans.
FE providers should hold discussions about after-school options with both students and their parents.
Invite past students who have gone on to do an apprenticeship to talk about their experience. This is also a helpful way of bringing the apprenticeship experience to life.

Apprenticeships offer people the opportunity to earn a route into a profession, a degree, gain invaluable workforce experience and sometimes, have a job at the end of their programme, all at a lower cost than a university degree.

We must make sure parents are absolutely clear about this, and see apprenticeships as a competitive opportunity.

Shadowing should be embedded in apprenticeship standards

Shadowing is highly effective CPD and also helps to build relationships within organisations, writes Priya Patel

I’m a former digital marketing apprentice at an independent training provider, and now I hold a full-time role there. It means I have first-hand experience of reaping the opportunities of an apprenticeship programme.

The most impactful opportunity I had was shadowing – something that perhaps we don’t discuss very often in the FE space.

Shadowing is the activity of working alongside another member of the business that you work for, who has a different role to you. This is so you can build upon your transferrable skills while also networking in other parts of the organisation at the same time.

The whole process helps an organisation to achieve business goals through better relationships.

When I worked with different members of the business, I found it very useful because it put into perspective how no working day is the same.

We learnt valuable knowledge from one another which enabled us to work better together in the future.

This shows how shadowing helps not only the learner, but the business and business members to work more efficiently. It set a higher standard of work for all of us involved.

It’s important to note that shadowing is different from other aspects of an apprenticeship.

This is because it’s a practice that is changeable, depending upon the different people you’re shadowing.

It means that learners can build up their skills in line with their needs, as well as the business’s needs. Shadowing helps to close skills gaps by facilitating learning first hand, in the shoes of colleagues.

If there’s a particular skills gap in your team, pinpointing another business member to learn from could be the way to upskill apprentices further. Also, it allows a business to do this without having to employ another team member.

Similarly, if the business has connections with another business, a way for these businesses to build connections is by allowing employees from each business to work alongside one another.

This shows how shadowing can allow your team to branch outward to other businesses in a way that will provide value to one another, as well as for apprentices. They’ll get the opportunity to network in a new streamline.

Suggesting shadowing can also, of course, be an effective strategy to deploy substantial continued professional development for your team.

Within any business, shadowing should be available to apprentices if they ask or if the business recommends it.

Shadowing in apprenticeship standards would help model good leadership

But it’s important to stress that shadowing is not in the apprenticeship standards.

If shadowing was in the standard, then more talent could be brought out on programmes and more individual apprentices could be stretched and developed.

If shadowing was embedded in all apprenticeships, we could create a new generation of apprentices who are leaders of their own learning.

By incorporating shadowing into the apprenticeship standard, this will help model good leadership. It would show learners that leaders exist at different stages of the career ladder, not just at ‘the top’ of it.

This in turn would emphasise the need to assist colleagues to gain the skills for these different stages of the career ladder. In turn, this would allow apprentices to experience a learning curve that represents the kind of leader they want to be.

For apprentices to reach their potential, they need to be given the independence to learn in different situations. But they also need the support and encouragement to do so.

When I was an apprentice, encouragement from my peers was the key to see me through the pathway of the apprenticeship.

It gave me confidence to learn as best I could on the apprenticeship programme. This has meant that on completion of my apprenticeship, I am able to continually guide my own learning as I’ve developed that habit from the get-go.

With shadowing in the apprenticeship standard, we would have the power to pass on the torch of brilliant learning, and keep it burning bright.