FOCUS FEATURE


APPRENTICESHIPS


The apprentice reform: ready for the


levy?


By Patrick Tucker MSc CMgr, Operations Director of SR Education


Apprenticeships are at the heart of the Government’s skills agenda. The July 2015 productivity plan ‘Fixing the Foundations: creating a more prosperous nation’ recognised that a strong professional and technical education system is critical to increasing productivity and the Government produced an implementation plan for the future of apprenticeships following the Richard Review (2012.) The reforms seek to ensure that apprenticeships become more rigorous and more responsive to the needs of employers by:


• Increasing the quality of apprenticeships • Introducing higher expectations on English and maths • Grading to incentivise apprentices to strive to be the best


• Increasing the focus on assessment at the end of an apprenticeship to ensure full competence


• Allowing employers to specify existing, new or no qualifications as part of the apprenticeship standard


32 business network February 2017 The reform puts the design of apprenticeship


standards into the hands of employers, meaning they can build an apprenticeship around a specific job role and allowing them to develop a workforce that has the skills to meet the needs of the organisation. Additionally, the Government is implementing the apprenticeship reforms using ‘open policy making’, avoiding a one-size-fits-all approach to the reforms. Apprenticeships benefit employers and individuals by


boosting the skills of the workforce, which, in turn, will help to improve economic productivity. The Government apprenticeship policy objective is to facilitate three million new apprenticeship starts by 2020, announcing in the 2015 Queen’s Speech that it would create a duty to report on the progress of meeting the target. The Apprenticeship Levy, which will come into force from April, is part of a larger set of reforms designed to narrow the productivity gap between the UK and other advanced countries.


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