In this episode, education journalist Jess Staufenberg explores disability – or differing ability – and what it means as an identity ahead of the long-awaited SEND review.
Join her, and staff and students, from across the sector. Is this sector lagging behind on disability diversity?
Training providers will not be dealt low Ofsted grades just because their achievement rates have declined, the chief inspector has promised.
Amanda Spielman told FE Week’s Annual Apprenticeship Conference this afternoon that the watchdog’s new inspection framework “does not require inspectors to use achievement rates to make a judgement”.
Her assurance came hours after the government’s director of apprenticeships, Peter Mucklow, warned the sector that officials “will not be satisfied” with the level of apprenticeship achievement rates when they are published in the coming days.
Spielman said she was aware that the pandemic has caused more apprentices than usual to go beyond their planned end date or even out of funding.
“It’s understandable that many of you are concerned about the impact of this on your achievement rates and how this might affect inspection judgements,” she told delegates.
“Achievement rates are important. Apprentices want to pass their qualification as it is often a passport to their next steps – and that’s a good thing. But please be assured, the framework does not require inspectors to use achievement rates to make judgement.”
The chief inspector continued: “We will not be making judgements of ‘requires improvement’ or ‘inadequate’ just because your achievement rates have declined during the pandemic.
“What we will want to hear about, and see evidence of, is how your teams of mentors, coaches and trainers are working with apprentices and employers to reorganise training. It’s this that will keep current apprentices making good progress, and get the apprentices who are past their planned end date, or out of funding, through their end point assessment.
“It could mean additional or refresher training, or some reorganisation of responsibilities at work. The outcome that we will be looking for is apprentices who have the skills and knowledge to achieve their qualification.
“Similarly, if achievement rates were poor before the pandemic, perhaps as a result of a poorly planned and taught curriculum, we will want to know what it is you are doing to improve the curriculum and how you know this is working.”
Apprenticeship achievement rates dropped slightly from 64.8 per cent in 2018/19 to 64.2 per cent in 2019/20. However, they were removed in February due to an “error” and will be republished in the coming weeks.
The rates have not been published at institution level for the past two years owing to the pandemic and will not return until 2021/22.
However, while provider-level achievement rates will not be published this year, they will still be shared with providers and Ofsted privately.
The government’s top apprenticeships civil servant has hinted there will be a big drop in national achievement rates this year.
Peter Mucklow told FE Week’s Annual Apprenticeship Conference today that both the revised apprenticeship achievement rates for 2019/20 and the new rates for 2020/21 will be published imminently.
But he warned his department “will not be satisfied with those levels” when they are released.
Without revealing what the rates are expected to look like, Mucklow, the Department for Education’s director of apprenticeships, said: “We need to get those achievement rates up.
“Now I know there are good outcomes for people who leave apprenticeships without achieving their qualification. Nonetheless, achievement rates are already around the lower levels and that is something we cannot be satisfied with.”
Low achievement rates will have been impacted by Covid-19 but are also largely to blame for retention rates.
National achievement rate tables published last year showed that the overall rate for all apprenticeships fell slightly from 64.8 per cent in 2018/19 to 64.2 per cent in 2019/20.
But the retention rate for standards in 2018/19 was 48.3 per cent and in 2019/20 was 60.2 per cent. Former skills minister Gillian Keegan ordered an investigation into the “astonishingly” high drop-out rate last year.
The DfE was forced to remove last year’s published achievement rates in February due to an “error”.
Mucklow revealed today that error came about because he took his “best people” off the job owing to Covid.
“During the Covid period in terms of the quality assessment of data, there was an error. The reason for that error was because we put some of our best people who do the quality assessment and assurance year on year on other work in the department,” he said.
“We thought that was the right thing but we’ve since discovered that in the 2019/20 published data was incorrect. There was an error that was made. Obviously, that’s quite a serious thing. So as soon as we found that out we put that into the public domain.”
Asked whether he was confident this error would never happen again, Mucklow said “yes”.
“We’re very satisfied this will not happen again because we are putting the strongest possible quality assurance team to ensure that it doesn’t.”
The skills minister has admitted the government “must” increase the number of young people starting apprenticeships and committed to “reduce friction” for small employers using the apprenticeships system.
But he conceded that the chancellor is unlikely to reintroduce apprenticeship cash incentives for employers in this week’s spring statement.
Alex Burghart used his speech to open up this year’s FE Week Annual Apprenticeship Conference to outline his priorities when it comes to apprenticeships before taking questions from the audience.
Here are the key takeaways
Apprenticeship starts among young people have been steadily decreasing since the government’s levy reforms in 2017.
In 2018/19, under 19s made up 24.8 per cent of all starts, this dropped to 23.6 per cent in 2019/20 and in 2020/21 it fell to 20.3 per cent.
It’s an issue the skills minister has identified and has promised to tackle – starting with a letter to school leavers.
He told conference: “I don’t want us to forget the young because there is something unquestionably special about the school leaver setting out to learn their craft.
“The economy is hungry for skills. We know that the young are hungry for apprenticeships.
“I want more young people to know about these options and these opportunities. And that’s why in National Apprenticeship Week, back in February, I wrote to all year 11, year 12 and year 13 pupils in schools and their parents to tell them about the great opportunities offered by apprenticeships.
“Too often, I found that 19 and 20 year old apprentices when I asked them how they found out about the opportunities, they told me that they know someone who’d done it, they told me that they found out about it on Google. Very, very few told me that they’d been told about it as part of their education or part of their time in school. And we want to start changing that, we want to cast the net wider.”
Burghart also said he has “heard loudly” that too many young people find the recruitment process for apprenticeships difficult to navigate. “We have to fix this,” he said. “My department is now looking at how we can support young people in the application process and work with employers to make sure that they present the benefits to their business of hiring apprentices.
“And we’re addressing how we support providers and employers to advertise apprenticeship vacancies, so that these are accessible to young people. We’re also going to continue to work with UCAS and capitalise on the excellent work it does connect young people with a range of opportunities available to them when they’re considering their next steps after school and college.”
The digital apprenticeship service was launched in April 2017 but was only for levy-paying employers to manage and spend their apprenticeship funding.
Small employers fully transitioned onto the service in April 2021, meaning that all apprenticeship starts must now go through the system rather than procured non-levy contracts held by training providers.
Burghart said this has been a “time of significant change” and recognised there are concerns that this “new way of working” has introduced some “additional administration, which has been burdensome for providers, and for particularly for SMEs”.
“I want to reassure you all that in the department we’ve heard and that we’re starting in depth discussions with providing groups over the coming months to fully understand the impact and to identify areas where we can make improvements to our systems,” he told delegates.
“And I’ve asked my officials to bring people together to have a series of hackathons on the system, make sure that we can make it as effective as it can be. To make sure that we reduce as much friction as possible so that we can encourage more SMEs to get involved.”
Burghart used his speech to hail the sector’s efforts in recovering apprenticeship start numbers to pre-pandemic levels.
One audience member told the minister he believed this was largely to do with the £3,000 employer cash incentives that were introduced in 2020 but end this month.
Burghart said it is “really good to hear that incentives were well received” but admitted there are no plans to reintroduce them.
“I don’t think that the chancellor is going to extend it or reintroduce it during his spring statement on Wednesday,” he said.
“Rishi was very clear that it is an expensive intervention that we brought in keep the whole system going during the uniquely complex time of Covid.
“We are now moving to, you know, touchwood, a post Covid time. And so those incentives and support mechanisms put in place have to fall away.”
Burghart finished his speech by saying this is an “extremely exciting time to be in technical education” before making a rallying call to the sector.
“It’s the reforms that we’ve been working on, the government has been working on for the better part of a decade, and starting to gather pace and make a real difference to learners and employers to make this a success.
“We need you here to continue working with us and championing high quality apprenticeships.”
To kick-start apprenticeships in this country we need to be bold. Today, there is a stigma around apprenticeships where they are seen as “less than” a university degree. The perceived wisdom is that a student who wants to progress in life goes to university ̶ for many it is seen as the only option.
In 2020, a Department for Education study found that 48 per cent of parents polled “worried” about the future earning potential of their children if they went down the apprenticeship route.
Furthermore, 35 per cent of parents still associated apprenticeships with manual jobs, and 45 per cent did not know you could earn a degree via an apprenticeship.
This is not only a huge shame for young people of all abilities and their life chances; if the country is to become a science superpower, we need an army of technicians and lab scientists to accomplish that ̶ and apprenticeships are key to making that happen.
On the continent, university and apprenticeships are regarded on an even footing. In the UK, teachers and senior leaders (including those inspecting schools) need to be supported to understand the huge opportunity and breadth available in apprenticeships.
On the continent, university and apprenticeships are regarded on an even footing
Apprenticeships are suitable for all types of young people and are absolutely not second best. This is a particular issue for science, as many students who are suitable for science apprenticeships are highly likely to be applying for a university course.
To match-make apprenticeships between students and businesses more effectively, reform needs to start with the school calendar.
The apprenticeship cycle needs to move in line with university applications, or in advance of them. Apprenticeships should be made available in June and July, students interviewed in autumn, to start the following September.
The current cycle makes no sense – we need to give young people certainty over apprenticeship places before the university application process.
These students will almost certainly accept their university place so as not to take the risk of holding out for an apprenticeship place.
Here’s how it would work well. In year 11, students should be encouraged to make clear what subjects and routes they’re exploring to give an indication to schools and colleges of what might be needed to meet their demand.
This could be shared with a regional apprenticeship lead (roles like this currently exist in many areas) or the education business partnership hub to ensure local knowledge about business and industry requirements is fully incorporated.
At the start of year 12, students thinking of an apprenticeship should be able to apply online, specifying what they are interested in and where.
Regional hubs can use this information to approach small and medium-sized enterprises in the local area and match them up with relevant students.
The apprenticeships available could be offered to students, with an application process in areas of high demand, in the summer before students start year 13.
Interviews could take place in August and September and places confirmed at the end of September, before university places are offered.
This approach would need full government backing, most likely through the DfE, but there are huge advantages to investing in this, not least as it would result in spending the apprenticeship levy in a far more effective way.
Nationally, this would make apprenticeships more widely available, particularly in science, to students of all abilities and backgrounds, and there would be far fewer young people not in education, employment or training (NEET).
Locally, this would ensure apprenticeships in local areas match local business need, it would get more SMEs involved in the programme, and it would be particularly impactful in areas of deprivation where families may be unwilling to incur debt from university.
What stops students signing up to an apprenticeship is an overly opaque system
It’s widely known that careers in science, technology, engineering and maths (STEM) increase social mobility – so it’s a double whammy in the case of science apprenticeships.
This would also be of financial benefit to SMEs, giving them support to increase capacity and bounce back from the disruption caused by coronavirus.
Often, what stops students from signing up to an apprenticeship is a system that is overly opaque and bureaucratic.
Apprenticeships must reform to engage young adults by becoming easier to apply for and more relevant locally.
Apprenticeships and technical education are vital to train people for two million green jobs targeted by government by 2030. This is a great opportunity for business to take advantage of the innovation and talent we have available in this country to help tackle climate change and set us on the road to net zero carbon emissions by 2050.
Making sure current training offers are future-proofed will help, but we will also have to improve our understanding of how the economy will change and what new skills will be needed.
Predicting future skills needs is notoriously difficult – but the Institute is in a great position to lead the way.
We need deep conversations on whether the existing skills offers are right and what needs to change. We can weave insights and market intelligence from the thousands of employers we work with into occupational standards that shape apprenticeships, T Levels, and higher technical qualifications.
There’s huge demand from young people to learn these green skills
Our employer-led green apprenticeships advisory panel (GAAP), which launched last year, is working at pace and is already producing impressive results.
Its role is to identify how existing apprenticeships serve new green jobs, or could be made greener, and where new apprenticeships could be created to address emerging skills gaps.
Its immediate impact can be seen through the expanded sustainability business specialist apprenticeship to help a business in any part of the economy become more sustainable.
The role used to focus only on agriculture, but we’ve broadened it for all areas of the economy following panel members’ guidance.
Further important work is being done to develop a low carbon heating technician apprenticeship that will support the rollout of heat pumps across England.
No new petrol and diesel cars will be allowed after 2030, so it’s really important to improve training for technicians to build and maintain electric vehicles.
National Express, which is moving to an electric and hydrogen fleet from 2030, is a good example of an employer informing our work. They’re helping make the existing bus and coach engineering technician apprenticeship, which recognises emerging technologies, more sustainable.
Other GAAP priorities include apprenticeships to support more sustainable food production, animal welfare, carbon zero construction, maintenance of wind turbines, and green finance, which enables businesses to invest in projects that support better environmental outcomes, following recommendations by the Chartered Banker Institute.
This needs to be promoted and supported across government. I know from my career with multiple departments how important it is that thinking is joined-up.
That’s why we are working closely with the Department for Education’s Unit For Future Skills. We also fed into the cross-government green jobs taskforce and will, for example, fully support its call to get more smaller employers involved with training young talent at a local level.
There’s no room whatsoever for complacency
We’re united in the shared belief that apprenticeships and technical education will only meet the nation’s green skills needs by following the lead of large and small employers, who I know from countless conversations view sustainability as a priority.
We also know that there’s huge demand from young people to learn these green skills, with half of 18-to-34-year-olds expressing a desire for a career that helps protect the environment.
The GAAP, which is extending its remit across technical education, has made a good start but there’s no room whatsoever for complacency.
Rest assured the Institute, government, employers, and the whole FE sector will do everything in our power to ensure skills training plays its full part in putting the economy on a greener footing and helping to save the environment.
The government has outlined ambitious and laudable plans for their levelling-up agenda, with the release of their recent white paper.
This promises to address geographic inequality across the country by investing in education and skills, some public services (such as the NHS, police and immigration), investing in towns, high streets and culture as well as a series of ambitious civil projects.
Big-ticket items of investment include £26 billion of public capital investment for the green industrial revolution, £4.8 billion into improving towns across the UK via the levelling-up fund; £5.7 billion allocated for improving transport links outside London and a commitment has been made to spend £5 billion on bringing gigabit-capable broadband to 85 per cent of the UK by 2025.
It is encouraging to see that the government has recognised the vital role that skills development will have to play in achieving the wider levelling-up agenda.
The white paper announced a £3.8 billion investment in skills in 2024/25, a lifetime skills guarantee in England, bootcamps and a new UK-wide numeracy programme.
However, it will be critical that these investments reach people across all parts of the UK and that the money is spent in key areas if they are to be effective.
The words ‘apprentice’ and ‘apprenticeship’ don’t appear at all in the levelling-up white paper. But apprenticeships must be made a priority to allow as many people as possible to access the opportunities that are likely to be available.
The words “apprentice” and “apprenticeship” don’t appear at all in the levelling-up white paper
And if they are more widely adopted, apprenticeships can help employers of all sizes to capitalise on the opportunities that the levelling-up agenda presents, by allowing them access to the skilled workers they need.
Using construction as an example, according to the Construction Industry Training Board, the construction sector is expected to need 217,000 new workers by 2025. Meanwhile, our Great Jobs report found that just 17 per cent of people not currently working in the construction sector said that they would consider a role in the industry.
Similarly, while only 23 per cent said they would consider a job in transport and logistics, the Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport found that 54 per cent of logistics firms expect to experience skills shortages by 2024. If these skills shortages are not addressed then the UK will struggle to meet the goals of the levelling-up agenda.
A central aim of the levelling-up agenda is increasing pay, employment and productivity in every part of the UK.
In the past five years, since the introduction of the apprenticeship levy, there has been a 36 per cent decline in the number of apprenticeship starts among young people from disadvantaged backgrounds.
SMEs have been particularly impacted by the reforms to the apprenticeship-funding system, with many smaller firms struggling to meet the financial commitments required.
This is of particular concern, given that SMEs have historically been more likely to offer level 2 apprenticeships which offer opportunities to people without academic qualifications, thus promoting social mobility among disadvantaged groups.
While the 2019 reforms to the apprenticeship levy system did take steps to provide additional support for SMEs offering apprenticeships, the government should consider whether additional actions should be taken as part of the levelling-up agenda.
And with the increasing cost of attending university, apprenticeships have the potential to provide an alternative route to many young people, as well as older workers looking to change careers.
The levelling-up programme offers a valuable opportunity to support economic development across the UK and to bring opportunities to regions and communities that have historically struggled with high unemployment and a lack of investment.
If these opportunities are to be realised in a way that will promote long-term, sustainable growth and improvements in prosperity across the UK, then apprenticeships will constitute a vital part of achieving these goals, providing a long-term solution to the skills shortage and promoting social mobility.
City & Guilds are the headline partner of the Annual Apprenticeship Conference 2022
As part of FE Week’s focus on apprenticeships, we’ve delved into our latest UCAS survey data to get an up-to-date picture of how the undergraduate students and apprentices of the future feel about their next steps ̶ setting them up for life.
When we recently asked current year 12 and equivalent students how important they felt a degree was to their career plans, 72 per cent said “very”. However, within these respondents, 33 per cent said that they would rather do a degree apprenticeship than a traditional degree ̶ and a further 14 per cent said that they don’t have a preference.
Degree apprenticeships are clearly becoming more valued by young people, even by those who feel a degree is very important for their career. Among all respondents, the interest in degree apprenticeships is now at 36 per cent.
As this cohort gets closer to making decisions, we expect the appeal of apprenticeships to grow even further. Among current undergraduate applicants, almost half expressed an interest in apprenticeships when they set up their UCAS account.
We expect the appeal of apprenticeships to grow even further
However, there is a gulf between interest and supply of opportunities – just 3,600 apprentice starts in England were undertaken by apprentices aged 19 or under.
One of the most surprising results from our survey respondents was that students from more advantaged backgrounds (POLAR quintile 4 and 5) are most likely to still be unsure about their career plans. It may be that they feel confident in keeping their options open for now.
By contrast, those from slightly more disadvantaged backgrounds (Q2 and Q3) know what they want to be and have a clear plan – these individuals are focused on the task at hand.
Unsurprisingly though, those who have not received any careers advice (not even chats with friends/family) are most likely to be unsure about their career, or to have a firm plan.
Students who have had careers advice from outside of school are most likely to have a clear plan, highlighting the importance of building networks beyond the school gates.
The most common form of careers advice comes from family and friends (with around two-thirds having received guidance). Additionally, the most popular form of future career advice is to have a one-to-one with employers.
Worryingly, 12 per cent say they are yet to receive any guidance. Excellent careers advice is absolutely essential for young people as they make big decisions.
We know ucas.com and our supporting social media channels are online sources for guidance, so we are investing in them to reach students early because GCSE choices can have huge implications years later.
Around one-fifth of students couldn’t study a degree subject that interested them because they didn’t have the right subjects to progress.
There is a gulf between interest and supply of opportunities
The overriding message is that relevant and meaningful careers advice for students is essential, including advice coming earlier than perhaps many would assume.
From before first choices are made about GCSE options, right through to graduation and employment, feeling confident about next steps comes from being able to make well-informed decisions, using relevant and accessible data.
Last week, we hosted several online events as part of National Careers Week, helping students with their decisions and giving them the opportunity to find out what employers are looking for.
That’s in addition to our in-person discovery exhibitions and all our existing online content, including the new careers quiz we introduced in the autumn.
This clearly shows the link between the courses that previous students have studied and what jobs they went on to do, providing personalised and timely guidance to individuals.
Our aim is to bring true parity across undergraduate courses, apprenticeships and technical training by independently presenting these choices side-by-side. Hopefully, more young people will choose the right course of study for them.
The training provider sector is critical to delivering the full skills complement needed to run tomorrow’s private and public sector businesses.
The future of the training industry is optimistic. But there are some operational and policy-induced hurdles to jump first.
Learner withdrawal rates pose one of the most significant challenges to a training provider. According to the Department for Education, 40 per cent of apprentices in England who start an apprenticeship drop out early.
So training managers are constantly striving to strike a fine balance between the quality of training and increasing the quantity of its learners.
The government has heralded skills and training as the way to help the country “build back better” after the pandemic – so we need to get this right.
The question is: where should training providers be focusing their attention?
Growth is rarely a byproduct of doing more with the same level of resource.
In the training industry, it’s clear that increasing the volume of learners without increasing the resource can impact that intricate balancing act of quality and quantity.
In effect, it leads to training managers struggling under the weight of an increasing caseload due to the volume of reporting required.
This reporting is not only for the learner and employer, but also to meet ESFA and Ofsted requirements.
But anything that forfeits time spent observing and guiding the learner and improving outcomes is detrimental to both the learner and the training manager.
This means there is a need to modernise business operations.
Trainers are no longer just trainers, they are more akin to coaches guiding learners in developing the skills, knowledge and behaviours to succeed.
Knowing how each learner is progressing at any given moment and, importantly, how engaged they are in the curriculum are metrics that trainers and managers rely on.
A lack of motivation and engagement can result in the learner taking longer to complete their training. Or in the worst-case scenario, they may become so unmotivated they withdraw.
It’s a trainer’s job to keep them on track and engaged while balancing the weight of necessary reporting requirements.
Every learner is different. Some will welcome challenges and others will prefer to comfortably meet the minimum standards.
Last summer the ESFA did a U-turn on the learning support needs assessment after initially proposing to ban it. The guidance was reviewed to support those with a specific learning difficultly or disability.
But arguably, the principles of a learning assessment and a personalised approach should also apply to all learners at the outset and throughout.
After all, a blanket approach is sure to increase withdrawal rates.
Here are some tips for managing trainer workloads, while boosting learner engagement:
