NEWS Training
Leading UK industry specialist awarding organisation EAL has urged the Government to save what it says are vital qualifications in new trailblazer apprenticeships. Its chairman, John Hillier has told MPs that vocational industry backed and developed qualifications are absolutely essential to prove competence, transferability and give confidence to employers and customers.
The Government has decided not to include formal qualifications in new apprenticeship standards, despite industry groups having repeatedly requested that they be retained. Mr Hillier’s comments come as EAL celebrates its 25th anniversary by holding a parliamentary reception to mark the occasion. It is a landmark moment for the organisation, which has issued more than two million certificates to apprentices and learners in the advanced manufacturing and engineering and building services sectors.
Mr Hillier said that, as industry moves forward to a fourth Industrial Revolution, chaos could ensue if employers cannot tell what new recruits are capable of. He said: “Time after time, employers have requested the inclusion of qualifications. They’ve always used them, they trust them and they like them – so why wouldn’t they keep using them? This is going to become even more important in the coming decades.”
“The new system of assessment
of apprentices being imposed by government is experimental at this stage – no other European country uses it as the sole method of assessment.”
He continued: “Radical change is about to sweep through our economy in the form of a fourth Industrial Revolution. Millions of jobs will be lost and millions created as technology revolutionises the world of work. Without qualifications how are apprentices supposed to show that they can do the jobs of the future – not just those of the present?” EAL has pledged to continue to work alongside government, industry and learners to develop qualifications from which individuals can truly build a lifetime of skilled, good quality work.
BESA (the Building Engineering Services Association) says that criticisms of the Government’s plans to boost apprenticeships are failing to see the big picture. According to a report published by the Institute for Fiscal Studies (IFS) it is claimed the target of delivering three million new apprenticeships by 2020 could be “poor value for money”.
A new Apprenticeship Levy is being imposed on the very largest employers from next year in order to pay for the expansion, but the IFS also suggested not all of the £2.8bn expected to be raised by the end of the decade would be spent on apprenticeships. In addition, it questioned the quality of the training that would be delivered under the plans and that
the apprenticeship ‘brand’ was being damaged. It also said that some existing training activity would simply be re-badged as apprenticeships in order to offset costs.
However, a number of organisations have condemned this as “nit-picking” and the Department for Education said standards under the new schemes would be “rigorously checked”. BESA added that apprenticeships were an essential part of the strategy to tackle the country’s crippling skills gap in vital economic sectors like engineering and construction – and, therefore, the return on investment would be realised over time. Chief executive of BESA, Paul McLaughlin, said: “A vocational apprenticeship is just the first step on the journey to a fulfilling career. We are working closely with employers in our sector to develop and deliver apprenticeships at all levels – from initial technician grades right up to degree equivalence.”
He added: “We see the new apprenticeship programme as a way of creating career paths that will deliver value for money at each stage and for years to come.”
Many technical professions have suffered from decades of under- investment in skills and training, according to BESA, and the new ‘Trailblazer’ apprenticeships being developed by industry sectors are designed to deliver training appropriate to the needs of employers struggling to find the skilled workers needed to keep up with demand.
Mr McLaughlin continued: “If you are trying to calculate potential value for money, you cannot compare this new approach with what has gone before. By focusing efforts on professions that are critical to the country’s future development in things like infrastructure and house building, you begin to build a pipeline of talent that will deliver a financial return for decades into the future.”
“Don’t forget it is employers who are footing most of the bill, but who are, quite rightly, also reaping the benefit of gaining a suitably skilled workforce. However, it is the country as a whole that sees the real long-term value through improved buildings, infrastructure, services etc. and of having a more highly skilled employment base,” he added. The association also pointed out that the quality of the training was being overseen by a new Institute for Apprenticeships in partnership with professional trade bodies, which were charged with engaging with employers of all sizes to ensure they got the type of apprentices they needed. Innovations include encouraging the largest employers to ‘farm out’ apprentices to smaller supply chain partners to give them wider experience and also create room for new apprentices to come in. The Government has said that just 2% of employers will pay into the Apprenticeship Levy – those with payrolls above £3m– and that the remaining 98% will receive 90% of the cost of training an apprentice.
8 March 2017
www.acr-news.com
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