Championing higher apprenticeships

Citation

Crawford-Lee, M. (2012), "Championing higher apprenticeships", Higher Education, Skills and Work-Based Learning, Vol. 2 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/heswbl.2012.50502caa.002

Championing higher apprenticeships

Championing higher apprenticeships

Article Type: Case Studies From: Higher Education, Skills and Work-based Learning, Volume 2, Issue 3.

Work-based learning[1] has become an increasingly high priority for employers over the past 20 years. The importance of applied technical knowledge in many of our most dynamic industries, together with a need to link them with practical skills and career development have made apprenticeships at the higher level a model that offers an acceptable route to achieving higher level vocational skills. Despite this, apprenticeships in the UK have not typically been considered a preferred route to a managerial or professional career or indeed higher level learning; where apprentices or their employers have sought progression there has been limited opportunity in the workplace.

In November 2010 the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne, and the Secretary of State for Business, Vince Cable, detailed the Government's commitment to creating the conditions for economic growth. A key proposal from the resultant Plan for Growth (HM Treasury, 2010)[2] was a £25m programme of targeted support to help employers benefit from new developments in higher apprenticeships. This programme of investment and development will ensure there are clear and achievable ladders of progression for apprentices to pursue their aspirations for higher level skills achievements including graduate and post-graduate study[3] and the attainment of professional qualifications, recognition and status[4].

The announcements from the Growth Review and Budget 2011 gave the National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) a mandate to create the Higher Apprenticeship Fund for the development of a new wave of apprenticeship frameworks. With a desire to transform an individual's experience and career development prospects whilst improving the skills available to business, the aim in publishing the Higher Apprenticeship Fund Prospectus[5] in July 2011 was to stimulate and create well regarded, high profile and sustainable higher apprenticeship programmes based on clear and evidenced employer demand that involve education and business partnerships in an innovative and exciting way.

Business leaders also consider a skilled workforce as a number one investment priority[6]; more and more employers are looking for new ways of recruiting and developing the skills of their existing and future workforce. The £25 m Higher Apprenticeship Fund will make a significant contribution to addressing the challenge of growing skills at the higher level to meet the demand of employers as higher apprenticeships have much to offer. For apprentices, they give access to exciting new employment opportunities with greater career progression options, a higher earning capacity and a route to professional recognition and status. For employers, higher apprenticeships will change the way they recruit their future senior technicians, managers and leaders and can address some of the specific barriers they face in accessing apprenticeships and higher level skills provision by ensuring there are clear routes for progression between advanced and higher apprenticeships.

Prior to the launch of the Higher Apprenticeship Fund (in July 2011) there were a relatively small number of higher apprenticeship frameworks being delivered as well as a small number in development. This development is now continuing at an accelerated rate and contributing to the government's desire to increase the number of apprenticeships over the period to 2014/2015. Apprenticeships are enjoying a record year with 450,000 starts in 2010/2011 alone (the highest on record). Although the vast majority follow an intermediate or advanced level programme[7], the NAS welcomes the potential for significant growth in the volume of students on higher apprenticeships as the number of frameworks, available to be delivered, expands.

The Government's ambition is that higher apprenticeships will offer first class skills to young people and adults in order to drive growth within business. The NAS's vision for higher apprenticeships is that this programme of investment will create a legacy of taking apprenticeships to new levels, to new sectors of the economy, to new professions and to a new cohort of learners. NAS wants higher apprenticeships to be the choice of employers for meeting their workforce development needs and for securing a transformation in the perception of apprenticeships. The original intent of the fund was to generate 10,000 new higher apprenticeship places. In fact, following two rounds of procurement, the Higher Apprenticeship Fund has resulted in 30 partnerships developing 40 new frameworks with a promise of around 25,000 new higher apprenticeship places by 2015.

Investing in the expansion of good quality higher apprenticeships not only creates a viable new career option for many young people and adults but also changes the popular perception of apprenticeships. A vibrant higher apprenticeship programme of the variety and range detailed in the case studies that follow help to position higher apprenticeships as a valued career option for high achievers as well as an accessible way into work. They also enable up-skilling and progression in the workplace and, more importantly, challenge the way that employers typically recruit to the professions. Sectors traditionally associated with Apprenticeships (engineering, construction and manufacturing) are naturally keen to explore the potential of higher apprenticeships. Frameworks currently being developed by Cogent, Leeds College of Building, Semta and City of Bristol College aim to: challenge the way these industries recruit professionals; attract new entrants; provide opportunities for upskilling the existing workforce; and ultimately raise their skills aspirations.

The breadth of higher apprenticeships currently being developed highlights that industries not traditionally associated with apprenticeships are now more engaged. The case studies from Babington Business College, Financial Skills Partnership, Peter Jones Enterprise Academy, The Council for Administration and PwC emphasise the importance of this model for vocational training to the professional sectors. Higher apprenticeships enable these sectors to attract good quality candidates, address the evolving skills needs of the businesses within these sectors and professionalise the sector. Frameworks within these sectors will offer much needed progression routes to higher level skills and professional status.

As higher apprenticeships grow in number, in sector coverage, in recognition and in importance to business and to individuals the artificial division in parity of esteem between “traditional” academic disciplines and higher level learning provision designed to raise skills levels in the workplace can be challenged and reduced. This position will be assured if new and greater collaboration between further education colleges, private training organisations, employers, professional bodies, Sector Skills Councils and universities (as described in a number of the following case studies) continue to be encouraged and supported in transforming the practice of higher apprenticeship delivery and championing and valuing a culture of higher level vocational learning.

Mandy Crawford-Lee

Notes

1. Work-based learning generally describes learning in the workplace. The learning is usually based on the needs of the employer and an individual's career and can lead to nationally recognised and professional qualifications including apprenticeships.

2. The Plan for Growth March 2011, HM Treasury and BIS.

3. Building Future Skills in Accountancy, November 2011, UKCES.

4. Developing Tomorrow's Scientists Today: An Annual Skills Report for the Life Science Industries, 2012, Cogent.

5. Higher Apprenticeship Fund Prospectus July 2011, NAS and BIS (www.apprenticeshipsorg.uk/∼/media/documents/haf/NAS-HAF-Prospectus-20July2011.ashx).

6. 15th Annual Global CEO Survey 2012, PwC.

7. Apprentices at the intermediate level work towards a Level 2 competence qualification and at the advanced level a Level 3 competence qualification (on the Qualifications and Credit Framework) in addition to functional skills and a relevant knowledge-based qualification.