Apprenticeship providers should be forced to deliver a minimum amount of training face-to-face, a social mobility charity has said after finding an “excessive” reliance on online learning for apprentices.
The Sutton Trust today claimed that England’s apprenticeships system is “riddled with poor quality training” that is leading to high drop-out rates and that mostly impacts apprentices from disadvantaged backgrounds.
Researchers found that 300,000 apprentices in 2023 didn’t receive their entitlement to off-the-job (OTJ) training, which should be around six hours per week, while 75,000 received no training at all.
And for the 40 per cent of apprentices that drop out annually, “excessive dependence” on “cheap but unengaging” online training is a “major factor”, according to their report. It quoted a survey of 500 non-completers in 2023, which found two-thirds said that online training had made up more than half their training, and 45 per cent said that all of their training had been online.
Simon Field, report author and director of skills policy at the Sutton Trust, said: “Off-the-job training requirements in England are loose, complex and widely ignored. And when the rules that do exist are flouted, it’s the most disadvantaged apprentices who often suffer the most. It’s much harder for them to challenge poor service or to highlight problems with their training programme.”
His report called for apprentices to have a “minimum requirement for face-to-face off-the-job training, with tighter enforcement of training requirements”, especially as existing requirements for off-the-job training in England are already “low by international standards”.
But Simon Ashworth, deputy CEO at the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said Field “misunderstands” what OTJ training actually involves and criticised the report for trying to “paint a picture that simply isn’t reality”.
He told FE Week: “We know that employers want and value flexible training models and that is something that the Labour government is doubling down on. Bringing in more rules to dictate face-to-face training would be a hugely damaging, retrograde step. Some of the best training as recognised by Ofsted in sectors such as digital is delivered virtually using technology.”
Low standards compared to other countries
Field’s report, “A World of Difference”, provides an international comparison of different apprenticeship systems in countries similar to the UK.
Apprentices in England are supposed to receive around six hours off-the-job training per week, whereas in Germany at least 12 hours a week are spent in a vocational school; and in Ireland there are 40 weeks of off-the-job education and training in four-year trade apprenticeships.
Field states that unlike the countries where off-the-job training involves release on a daily or longer basis to attend college, in England “homework, online study, and training on-the-job are all potentially included in the count of what is called (at a stretch of ordinary language) off- the-job training”.
He said little information and no regular data are available on the extent of these different forms of learning, adding that training providers have “obvious incentives to limit the amount of costly face-to-face training in favour or cheaper alternatives, and a significant proportion of apprenticeships involve no face-to-face training”.
The report finds high levels of OTJ non-compliance by taking statistics from a recently published DfE-funded survey of nearly 5,000 apprentices, which found four in 10 did not receive the training required, and one in 10 reported receiving no off-the-job training at all.
Field then applied these stats to a baseline of 736,530 apprentices who participated in training in 2023-24 to conclude that around 300,000 apprentices received less than their training entitlement, and nearly 75,000 received no training in that year.
Covid led to online learning dependence
The report also claimed apprentices in England receive “far more” training online rather than face-to-face than elsewhere.
It said that during the Covid years, many apprenticeship systems were forced to make extensive use of online training but as the pandemic concluded, the “many European systems where apprentices normally spend one day a week in vocational school will presumably have reverted, more or less, to their traditional arrangements, possibly with some adaptations to make use of online provision where it is most effective”.
But in England, the “incentive to cut costs by limiting face-to-face provision will be stronger, especially but not only in private providers”.
Field believes homework and online learning are “valuable learning tools” but warns that disadvantaged homes “often lack a quiet place to study, quality computer hardware and software, and a relative or friend to offer informed help and support.
“Reliance on home study, in the absence of compensatory support, therefore allows inequalities in home background to heavily influence attainment.”
He said in France, as an alternative approach, apprenticeships delivered online will soon be subject to a different funding regime.
Around 40 per cent of apprentices fail to complete their course. Field said research shows this was partly because of “poor quality training, and excessive reliance on online rather than face-to-face training”.
While drop out rates are similarly high in Australia (45 per cent) and Denmark (38 per cent), they are much lower in several other similar countries, including France (27 per cent), Germany and Austria (both 25 per cent), and Ireland (20 per cent for craft apprenticeships, and even lower for newer non-craft programmes).
The Department for Education said there are multiple reasons why apprentices do not complete their programme and quoted the same 2023 apprenticeship evaluation survey that showed the most common single main reason given for leaving was receiving a better job offer (16 per cent).
OTJ needs a better definition
Field said the broad English definition of off-the-job training “obstructs quality assurance”, since it requires any auditor to “delve into a complex mix of activities in the workplace, at a training provider, and at home in order to assess compliance”.
He said: “Off-the-job training needs a better definition, and reference to the need for a minimum of face-to-face training. Online training and homework would remain valuable tools, but as in most schools and universities, they should be supports rather than replacements for face-to-face learning.”
Nick Harrison, CEO of the Sutton Trust, said: “Apprenticeships can be positive drivers of social mobility, but right now the system isn’t delivering enough quality opportunities for young people, especially from low-income backgrounds. Too many young apprentices are being let down by inadequate training, leading to tragically high drop-out rates. Reform is long overdue.”
Ashworth said: “There needs to be accountability around off-the-job training, but the authors of this report somewhat ironically appear to misunderstand what that training actually involves. It is well known that there is a long-standing issue that many apprentices fail to recognise when they receive their off-the job training, assuming it means training ‘away from the workplace’ entirely.
“A new, clearer and modern term for off-the-job training is long overdue so employers, learners and the general public understand exactly what should be delivered as part of an apprenticeship.”
Field’s report also criticised the government’s decision to reduce the minimum length of an apprenticeship from 12 to eight months in England.
In Germany, apprenticeships last three to three and a half years, three to four years in Australia, or two to four years in Ireland.
The report also said degree and higher apprenticeships for young people, ideally up to age 25, and in key industries like medicine should remain eligible for levy funding.
Last month the government confirmed it will defund level 7 apprenticeships for those aged 22 and older from January 2026.
Field said degree apprenticeships are an area where England has led internationally, with higher-level apprenticeships giving vital opportunities for young people to train to a high level without debt, a particular benefit for those from lower-income families, but one that has yet to be fully realised.
A Department for Education spokesperson said: “Through our Plan for Change we are determined to ensure our apprenticeship system creates opportunity and drives growth.
“Our new levy-funded growth and skills offer will introduce greater flexibility to employers and learners in England, creating routes into good, skilled jobs in growing industries – aligned with the government’s industrial strategy.
“Combined with our transformative skills reforms providing 120,000 new training opportunities, we are breaking down barriers to opportunity so that every young person can achieve and thrive.”
