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Important questions still remain in Government’s approach to apprenticeships
This week, the National Audit Office published a report on apprenticeships which highlighted a number of key questions and concerns that still remain.
The NAO has said that more must be done to ensure the quality of apprenticeships as the Government continues to push towards the goal of 3 million apprenticeship starts by 2020.
The report examines whether the Department for Education can demonstrate that the increasingly employer-led apprenticeships programme is achieving value for money. The NAO has concluded that while the Department for Education was making progress in a number of areas, there still remained “some important gaps in its approach.”
These concerns echo those of the tech sector’s, primarily on the paucity of uptake in higher level apprenticeships and lack of a coherent plan on how apprenticeships fit into the wider plan for productivity and growth.
Findings from the report state most of the growth in apprenticeship starts came from those aged 24 and over in apprenticeships at Level 2. Level 4 to 7 apprenticeships made up less than 2% of the total of starts. techUK haspreviously commented on the need for a focus on higher level apprenticeships, as these are the skills employers will need for jobs of the future. In an era of huge technological advancements, the Government should give further consideration to how the apprenticeships can best be used to help companies across the economy where there are roles are risk of automation or augmentation, and these type of skills will lie in higher level apprenticeship standards.
The report also stated that the Government have no success measures in terms of how the apprenticeship programme is impacting on skills levels, addressing skills gaps or improving achievement rates. Without these indicators, the DfE will be unable to know whether the systems and incentives in place are having the desired effect. techUK echoes this sentiment, and believes the Government must align the apprenticeship delivery plan with the Government’s “smarter state” ambition. Real-time evidence and data-driven policy, responsive to future workforce needs, must be evident in the Government's approach to apprenticeships. With Matt Hancock MP moving across from Cabinet Office to take up the Digital Economy mantle across BEIS and DCMS, it is time for cross-departmental working to meet the UK’s digital skills challenge. Industry of course has a role to play in that, and we hope to see such an approach reflected in the forthcoming UK Digital Strategy.
The NAO further found the process of developing new standards has been resource-intensive for employers and has taken longer than the DfE envisaged. This is critical for the sector - tech companies are crying out for big data analysts, cyber security specialists and software developers. Many jobs that will be created by 2020 do not exist yet, and the Government needs to consider how the process of apprenticeship standard creation will adapt to that. The accreditation process needs to move much more quickly and give companies assurances that it can keep pace with the changing nature of roles in the digital economy.
Finally, the NAO outlined the following recommendations for the Department for Education:
- Set out the planned overall impact on productivity and growth, along with short‑term key performance indicators to measure the programme’s success.
- Ensure that the timescale for further development of Trailblazer standards remains realistic, and is well communicated to employers and providers.
- Improve the way that it handles key risks, interdependencies and contingencies across the various elements of the programme.
- Do more to understand how employers, training providers and assessment bodies may respond to ongoing reforms, and develop robust ways of reacting quickly should instances of market abuse emerge
- Determine the respective roles of government bodies and the Institute for Apprenticeships, with particular regard to: overseeing the quality of apprenticeship training; and collecting and analysing relevant data and metrics.
That the NAO's report echoes the concerns techUK has raised previously about apprenticeships shows just how important it is for the Government to get the issues right, especially with the Apprenticeship Levy imminent. For more on techUK's work on the Apprenticeship Levy, please see our response to the latest Levy guidance documents, our breakdown of Apprenticeship Levy developments, and our piece on the future of apprenticeships.
