Apprenticeships should be a core part of the levelling-up agenda

The government needs to take action over the decline in apprenticeship starts if the country is to ‘level up’, writes David Phillips

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

Students are keen on apprenticeships, but still need earlier guidance

Among current undergraduate applicants, almost half expressed an interest in apprenticeships, writes Clare Marchant

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.

Can we reduce learner dropout without increasing trainer workload?

Training managers end up struggling with caseloads due to the volume of reporting required, writes Brad Tombling

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?   

Lengthy and bureaucratic reporting   

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.  

Demotivating factors   

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.

Avoiding the urge to treat every learner the same   

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.    

So how can trainers achieve this?

Here are some tips for managing trainer workloads, while boosting learner engagement:

  1. Build a rapport with learners and measure engagement regularly, anticipating any possibility of drop-out.
  2. If engagement levels drop, adapt quickly to understand why and take positive intervention, which might include altering the curriculum content or by reviewing at their next progress meeting.
  3. Streamline and smooth workflows by tracking the learner in real time to meet compliance requirements.
  4. Build interactive activities into the curriculum to track knowledge and behaviour and use this data to inform future training delivery. 

As a boss of an independent apprenticeship provider, my hands are tied

FE colleges have access to capital and bailout funding, but independent providers are largely ignored, writes Iain Elliott

At HETA and GTA England we don’t do politics, just training. But we do welcome MPs of all political persuasions to visit, because it helps us inform the skills and training debate and raise awareness of what we do.

If we can help to shape government policy that’s great. It’s important that people get out of Westminster and listen to learners and employers.

The latest politician to call in was Toby Perkins, shadow minister for skills and education. He toured our headquarters in Hull and chatted to learners and apprentices working on fabrication and welding, mechanical and electrical engineering.

He wanted to know about their journey from school to traineeships and apprenticeships, and about how we help them get jobs. He spoke to employers about how to use their leftover apprenticeship levy. He asked a lot of questions and listened intently.

Mr Perkins was impressed with learner attitudes, modern facilities that showcase attractive career opportunities and the strength of our relationships with employers dating back to 1967. This was when HETA was launched as an independent learning provider (ITP) in a rundown property near Hull’s fish docks.

We’ve moved twice since then, most recently in 2018 to a site that we transformed with a £4 million investment helped by grant funding from the now defunct Humber LEP and support from Hull City Council.

Give the ITP network fair and focused access to strategic funding

Using reserves and borrowings, we’ve committed even more than that to a newbuild at Stallingborough, near Grimsby. We are aiming to open it in August 2023 to replace the nearby facilities which we’ve leased for over 15 years.

We’ve also got a centre at Scunthorpe that is less than ten years old, and everything we do is consistent with the principles we adopted 55 years ago, working as members of the Group Training Association – GTA England – to deliver exactly the sort of training that businesses want. We are employer-led and we always will be.

But there has to be a level playing field. While FE colleges have had access to capital and bailout funding, the ITP and GTA network is largely ignored.

Our new centre is a key element of a £42 million regional investment programme that is regenerating 189 hectares of land to create attractive new locations for business and industry.

We know from our work with GTA England and with hundreds of employers that the demand for the facility is there and will increase.

During 2021 we received more than 800 applications for 210 learner places. Numbers this year are similar but we haven’t been able to access any capital funding from the government for the project, and we feel as though we are fighting with one hand tied behind our back.

In short: give the ITP and GTA network fair and focused access to strategic funding and we’ll deliver the government targets for skills growth.

We also spoke to Mr Perkins about the enormous amount of effort we put into visiting schools and inviting students into our training centres, but there’s a view among our team and among employers that parents and their children don’t know enough about their post-16 options.

We would like to get to the situation where, at 16, we have more discerning customers.

Katie, an apprentice who is employed by a major local business and learning mechanical and electrical engineering, told Mr Perkins she worked in admin and knew nothing about STEM until she went to Rwanda with her Girlguiding group and experienced building houses.

It’s great that she found her vocation, but she’s now 27 and it really shouldn’t have taken that long.

We’re working to get the message across to the real decision-makers – the young people and their families – that apprenticeships are a fantastic post-16 opportunity.

And our message to the government is that there’s never been a more important time to invest in training.

By the way – there’s an open invitation for all policy makers and influencers to come to Humberside!

Political education should be embedded in the FE curriculum

Without a counter-narrative from educators, students can believe inaccurate versions of the world, writes Maxine Looby

One of the most valuable lessons I’ve learnt as a teacher is never to assume what I think my students know.

With the internet at their disposal, students have the world at their fingertips, and at the very least we would assume they have a basic understanding of significant world events. It’s a very easy assumption to make.

I was teaching my students about the Holocaust when it soon became clear that out of about 15 students, only two had heard about this horrendous, globally significant event. My students speak English as a second language, and come from all over the world.

They were very moved and shocked. Sadly, as with the Holocaust, significant numbers of my students have had to flee war and persecution. But outside of my ESOL class, I think you’d also find this across the board, with many students.

There needs to be a real commitment to teach students about socio-political and historical events and contexts. Students often don’t have a clear understanding of what’s happening in the wider world, or their local history. 

One takeaway for me from these lessons is the genuine interest and gratitude students show when given the opportunity to learn. 

I also taught a class recently about the local history of Oldham, in our programme of study in ESOL called Skills for Life. Learning about past history and how this links to the local economy and current unemployment rates should be integral to learning.

Oldham was once the world’s manufacturing centre for spinning cotton. Being able to physically reference some of the cotton mills from the classroom window brings that history alive, and it also directly pays respect to the Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities who came to Oldham and worked long hours in those same mills to help to build the economy.

It’s especially important that all students from Oldham understand the history and context, because it’s a very multicultural town but division and racist attitudes still exist. Local history gives all of our students a sense of pride and purpose.

One student from South America came up to me after the lesson and said, “Thank you.” When I asked her why, she said, “I would never know this, and I appreciate all the work Asian people did when they came to this country to help me have a better life now.” 

For International Women’s Day, I focused on two extraordinary but little-known women. 

Amy Garvey was a feminist from the Caribbean, and one of only two women to chair the Pan African Congress, in 1945. She was also an author, educator, theatre producer, restaurant and club owner and executive of the Black Star Line ship. She edited the first newspaper for African Caribbean communities in the UK and campaigned tirelessly for equality for girls and women.

It shouldn’t be up to an individual teacher to be interested enough

Jayaben Desai was a factory worker who led a two-year strike in the 1970s against the way Asian women were being treated unfairly in the workplace, including being paid less than their white counterparts and having to request to use the toilet. At one point, 20,000 demonstrators joined in her protest. No one in any of my classes had heard of her. One my male students said, “Wow, that’s a strong woman!”

This kind of learning challenges sexist attitudes, and it’s also important for my women students. Some of them have faced very difficult or similar struggles coming to this country.

The real problem is that socio-political education is not embedded in the FE curriculum, or in the school curriculum. There’s no requirement to teach students a rounded understanding of the world, or why things are like they are now. 

It shouldn’t be up to an individual teacher to be interested enough or understand the importance to bother to teach it. Without a counter-narrative from educators, they can believe versions that are inaccurate and which fuel tensions between communities.

Otherwise, too many of our students are only hearing one side of the story about their local area or wider global events.

Parents of older learners will be sceptical about the SEND review

The fight for resources becomes harder the older students become – making the SEND review especially critical for this group, write Rachel Amos and Janvi Patel

With a long trail of delays behind it, the government’s SEND review is billed to finally arrive this year, evaluating the support system for those students with special educational needs and disabilities.  

There is already considerable concern amongst parents that not only are they not being consulted about the SEND review but that all the messages coming from government ministers suggest the focus is on changing the system (again) and not making the system we already have work better.

From a legislative point of view, the system is good – the Children and Families Act 2014 pulled education, health and care together and enables a holistic approach.

Unfortunately, it is in the implementation of the act, the divergence of application from one local authority to another and the fight that parents have to access help that lets this down.

Parents of older children and young adults with SEND will be the most sceptical of the SEND review outcomes.

Education and health care plan (EHCP) provision is supposed to run until children are 25 years old, but in truth, that is very hard to achieve. Most EHCPs are delivered at the top of primary school, with a decline in provision as learners move out of formal education.

I talked to Nick, who has a rare genetic condition, for this article. He was born in 1984, and Great Ormand Street Hospital refused to give him a life expectancy span – the only other recorded person with the condition had only lived to age 15. Nick is now 37.

He cannot speak, as he has a tracheostomy, so Nick had a statement in school and was supported. But when he left aged 17 – unable to complete A-levels – his father says his life “fell off a cliff”.

He has never had a paid job and got very little support. He is very good at spelling, and is very active in online chat groups about his condition, but at 37 his heath is poor. The family feel strongly that if he had been better prepared for leaving school, he could have been able to contribute much more, and might even have had a job.

Stories like these are a waste of opportunity and capability

Stories like these are a waste of opportunity and capability, and a waste of the statemented support Nick was given, which vanished overnight. Not only did his educational funding disappear, a new struggle began and this is the reality for many parents of older SEND students.

The personal independence payment (PIP) was brought in in 2013 by the then chancellor George Osborne to replace disability living allowance (DLA) as part of the austerity cuts.

PIP is assessed very differently from DLA, and even if a child has had DLA throughout education there should be no assumption that they will get PIP post 18. It is also a lower amount, despite the costs for the SEND young adult increasing as they get older.

At a point of extreme change and flux, SEND children and their parents may embark on the toughest legal fights of that journey, on a diminished income. Only eight per cent of parents of disabled children are in work.

Another obvious flaw in the system is for learners who have a late diagnosis – this is particularly likely if they are neurodiverse or have a hidden disability.

One of the parents that Support SEND Kids interviewed last year spent £50,000 to achieve support for her daughter who was diagnosed with autism at age 17.

That is well beyond the means of most parents and these sorts of costs are financially crippling. Who knows how good her outcomes might have been if she had been diagnosed earlier?

The recent SEND Money Survey carried out by Let Us Learn Too and the Disabled Children’s Partnership reported that UK families have spent a combined £14.6 billion fighting authorities, a tragic waste of money and time, given that appeals have a 95 per cent success rate.

And in many cases, “success” may come too late for some of the older learners.

Families with learners who are over 16 stand to lose a lot if the SEND review fails. We mustn’t let any more lives fall off a cliff.

Activate Learning and Lincoln College Group drop merger plans

Plans for a merger that would create the largest college group in the country have been dropped.

Activate Learning and Lincoln College Group started exploring a merger last year when it was announced the latter’s chief executive Gary Headland would take the reins at Activate after its chief executive Sally Dicketts retired.

But Activate announced today that the merger will not go ahead. In a statement the group said this decision was made following due diligence being carried out.

However, Dicketts later told FE Week that “nothing untoward” was found with the due diligence, and instead the decision was strategic.

“The biggest reason for Activate is we have virtually doubled in size with Bracknell and Wokingham College and then taking on the Surrey group of colleges which happened just before lockdown.

“Those colleges were also slightly difficult financially, because they had very large deficits.”

Dicketts explained that when Headland was appointed he suggest a merger could be looked at- something governors were open to considering.

“But obviously it has to fit in with the strategic plan we have. We aren’t anti-merger, but it has to fit in with where we are at the moment,” she said.

“It also has to be financially right and I think what we felt with where we are at the moment, given those [previous] mergers, our group services are probably at their maximum capacity.

“Therefore, if we now merged we would probably have to take on more pupils and therefore the financial savings that we have made in the past wouldn’t be there and the board felt there was still quite a lot to do within Surrey to really bring them on board.”

Dicketts explained that the technical challenges associated with a merger were also a factor.

“Something like 70 per cent of commercial and public sector mergers never happen. Normally because you have got to change all your systems,” she said.

“A lot of our systems are different… once you start getting into all of that in a merger, then you start getting into the cost of implementing it.

“That is when you think, if you have just taken over two colleges that are net losing six and a half million, do we have a lot of cash left over to put into changing all of these systems, when frankly we’ve just changed them.”

Both Lincoln College Group and Activate Learning are made up of multiple colleges and have international and commercial operations.

LCG has three colleges located in Lincoln, Gainsborough and Newark and Activate’s seven campuses serve Berkshire, Oxfordshire and Surrey.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: EDITION 383

Judith Feline

Trustee, Prisoners’ Education Trust

Start date: April 2022

Previous Job: Governor, HMP Maidstone

Interesting fact: When Judith was working in Bedfordshire she secured a £2.4 million Millennium Lottery Grant to create the Forest Centre – a country park visitor and conference centre

Dan Baxter

Business Manager, Education Practice, Peridot Partners

Start date: April 2022

Previous Job: College Engagement Manager, National Citizen Service Trust

Interesting fact: Dan has won the trophy of Pointless but, sadly, didn’t win the jackpot because of a lack of Taylor Swift Knowledge

Jamie Rowley

Director of Apprenticeships and Employer Solutions, City College Plymouth

Start date: February 2022

Previous Job: Head of Academy for Construction and the Built Environment, City College Plymouth

Interesting fact: Whilst at a motel in Dover, Jamie was invited to dine with June Whitfield who was there with her family

Martin Buck

Head of Assessment and Product Development, Skills and Education Group

Start date: March 2022

Previous Job: Head of Digitial Improvement, NCC Education

Interesting fact: Martin enjoys cycling and has completed many of the UK’s iconic long-distance challenges, including the famous Land’s End to John O’Groats, Lon Las Cymru and Scotland’s North Coast 500

Employer groups call on Sunak to reform levy funds in his spring statement

Employer groups are calling on the chancellor to allow apprenticeship levy funds to cover the cost of apprentice wages and transport expenses in next week’s spring statement – but there are conflicting views on whether other training programmes should become eligible. 

The apprenticeship levy was introduced in 2017 and aimed to help increase investment in training. However, many levy-paying businesses have found it challenging to use for their training needs. 

A 2020 report from the Confederation of British Industry said that many businesses that pay into the levy – those with an annual pay bill of over £3 million – claimed it had become a “barrier” to increasing their investment in training. 

At the time, the CBI recommended the government turn the apprenticeship levy into a “flexible skills and training levy”, which could be used for short modular courses, pre-apprenticeship programmes, product training, professional courses and soft skills training. 

However, to date, these calls have fallen on deaf ears, and joint minister for FE and HE Michelle Donelan told FE Week last month that there were no plans to introduce big changes to the system any time soon. 

Despite this, employer groups are continuing to call for reforms ahead of chancellor Rishi Sunak delivering his spring statement on March 23. 

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) wrote to secretary of state for education Nadhim Zahawi urging the government to use the statement to introduce “much-needed flexibility” to the levy. 

“Bringing about more flexibility in the apprenticeship levy would not cost government or businesses a penny but could help bring about an estimated 8,000 new apprenticeship places across the retail industry,” Helen Dickinson, chief executive of BRC, said. 

BRC said the government should allow levy funds to cover associated training costs – including transport, or backfilling roles to free up staff for off-site training. 

Like the CBI, the BRC also said the government should allow a wider range of courses to be supported through levy funds – allowing funds to be used to support more young people through “vital” pre-employment and pre-apprenticeship programmes. 

Make UK, a group that represents manufacturers in the UK, wants to see a portion of levy funds being spent on apprentice wages and meeting other costs, such as capital expenditure. 

“Make UK has called for simple changes to the apprenticeship levy to make it work better for employers,” said Jamie Cater, employment senior policy manager at Make UK. 

“While apprenticeship starts in manufacturing and engineering have recently increased significantly – a trend we expect to continue this year as employers recover from the impact of Covid – the government could do more to support businesses to recruit and retain apprentices. 

“Allowing a portion of levy funds to be spent on apprentice wages and meeting other costs, such as capital expenditure, would remove some of the immediate barriers to employers investing more in apprenticeships and reduce the amount of unspent funding returned to the Treasury.” 

Using unspent funds from the apprenticeship levy to cover apprentice wages is a policy switch favoured by the Labour Party. 

Other employer groups highlighted how the government needed to do more to meet employers’ needs. 

“Many of our businesses are small and medium-sized and do not necessarily understand the scheme and how it can be applied to their business, or deem it overly bureaucratic,” Claire Steiner, chair of education and training at the Institute of Travel and Tourism, told FE Week.

 “More ‘how to’ communication aimed at smaller businesses would be beneficial to encourage take-up and investment in skills in the workplace.” 

While groups were calling for change, the Federation of Small Businesses warned against “well intentioned” reform of the levy. 

In a letter to Sunak, the FSB said the levy should not be turned into a broader training levy if this leads to levy funds drying up for those smallest employers. 

“We would ask you to apply appropriate scepticism to superficially attractive changes to the levy which will not lead to positive results in the small firms in which the majority of the employed population work,” said Mike Cherry, national chair, and Martin McTague, national vice chair, policy and advocacy, at FSB. 

Surprisingly, none that spoke to FE Week called for employer cash incentives, which were introduced to help recover apprentice starts post Covid-19 at a price of £3,000 each, to be extended. The cash bonuses end this month.