The future of employer engagement in light of changes in the apprenticeship arena

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The Future of Employer Engagement in
the Apprenticeship arena
What You Need Know in terms of the
changes planned with Apprenticeships
An initial view by Safaraz Ali
feedback & views welcome twitter @SafarazAli or
Safaraz@pathwaygroup.co.uk
Linkedin: https://uk.linkedin.com/in/safaraz

Revolution in Assessments
• All apprentices will be graded, for example, pass, merit and
distinction
• Provider-based assessors will have less influence over apprentice’s
outcomes; there will an increased emphasis on them providing
coaching and training;
• Independent Assessors will be employed by new Apprentice
Assessment Organisations (AAOs) with employers making the key
decisions on apprentice competence
• Apprentices will have to pass one or more independent end-point
assessments
• Therefore providers will need to make sure learners are properly
prepared for assessments they cannot control.
• Assessment will still be needed but their purpose will be to
measure learner progress ensuring the apprentice is ready for end-
point assessments

Revolution in Assessments
Cont…
• There will be a need for training and CPD
to bring delivery staff up to speed and
upskill them in a range of different
approaches
• To add value for employers due to the
diminished responsibility for assessing
• To add value to the Apprenticeship
system; this will include delivery of high
quality learning tailored to the employers’
needs.

Changing Content
What is being removed?
• Employment Rights and Responsibilities
disappears
• However, apprentices will still need good
careers advice, information and guidance
• Personal Learning and Thinking Skills
replaced by Behaviours; these will need
specific training

Changing Content
Cont...
So what else is going?
• In some Apprenticeships, qualifications may no
longer be used – making it more difficult for
providers to design curricula and structure training
to ensure the apprentice achieves the Standard;
without this content, different programmes may
come up with quite different outcomes
• The new Apprenticeships focus on single
occupations, not sectors or job ‘families’
• Narrowing training and complicating delivery

Changing Content
Cont…
Any thing else?
• SASE Framework approach disappears
• Much greater diversity in
Apprenticeship Standards and
Assessment Plans: common CPD will be
more difficult

Challenges for Independent Assessment
which are worth keeping an eye on
• There will need to be a large pool of Assessors
• Or there may be significant delays in apprenticeship
completions outside the provider’s control.
• Technological solutions such as online testing may
alleviate this but relies on employers having the
technology and will to make this happen
• Standardisation of Assessment may be difficult
• If the selection of independent assessors is mainly
based on their knowledge/experience of current
industrial practice, they are likely to work in industry
at the moment and unlikely to have any training or
accreditation in assessment methodology or QA.
Therefore, quality of assessment may decline.

Challenges for Independent Assessment
Cont...
• AAOs will require a large pool of end-point assessments,
maintained and updated on a frequent basis; without this they
will be known in advance and much easier to prepare for
reducing the quality and validity of any assessment.
• No information as yet how various AAOs will maintain
consistency when offering end-point assessments for the same
standard.
• Assessment plans already published show a large variety of
assessment mechanisms. Many of these are new and will
require assessors to be trained in all of these methods or at
least those that apply in their sector/occupation.
• This will require time and increases complexity.

New Funding Model Will Change the
Apprenticeship Market
• Funded via employer levy 0.5% of company's wage bill over £3M (2% of
employers will pay with first £15,000 discounted)
• Funds for Apprenticeship training under the control of the employer, not
the provider
• No direct contracts
• No need for subcontracting
“2016-17 is a transitional year. It is the last year in which government
funding for apprenticeship is solely grant, and not levy.”
• Employer will decide if and how to spend funding on external provision
The Digital Apprenticeship Service (DAS) will provide employers with the
means to pay for the off the job training of their apprentices drawing on
government funds, including those raised by the levy. Government are
considering closely the best way to manage those funds, including how any
ceilings may be set
• Providers will need to complement what the employer can do and will be
required to ‘up the ante’ on marketing, and design attractive quality
training

Public Sector Targets
• Through the Enterprise Bill, it is intend to introduce new statutory
targets for public sector bodies to employ their fair share of
apprentices to contribute to the goal of achieving 3 million
apprenticeship starts
• It is proposed that the targets will apply to public bodies with 250 or
more people working for them in England, in December 2015 with a
minimum target of 2.3%
• Subject to Parliamentary approval, these targets will be put in place in
2016. Public bodies will then be required to report annually on
progress
• The NHS has already committed to delivering over 17,000
apprenticeship starts during 2015/16, reaching more than 100,000 in
2020 - approx. 6% of workforce
• It is important therefore that we proactively engage with the public
sector to maximise opportunities for providers

The Current Financial Position
• Currently, in most cases, training providers (80%) and colleges
(10%) take on the responsibility for dealing with the
administration, programme quality and drawing down of funding
for apprentices on behalf of the employer. In a few cases, large
employers (10%) hold their own funding contract and bear this
responsibility themselves without involving training providers or
colleges.
• Most employers already make a significant, often unappreciated
and unrecognised financial contribution to an apprentice’s on the
job training by providing :
• hands on skills development
• mentoring
• bearing the cost of the wages, tools and equipment they use.
• And yet in most cases, employers do not receive a share of the
funding.

The Current Financial Position
Cont .. .
• The funding system does not allow for any
negotiation on the funding received by the training
provider, and ignores the actual cost of delivery.
• The SFA sets a flat rate per apprenticeship and this
may or may not cover all the external training
costs.
• This distinct lack of competitive pricing/funding
doesn’t really help to create any efficiencies or
effectiveness through market forces.
• Therefore there does seem to be a good argument
for employers to take on the responsibility for the
whole apprenticeship process.

Are the Employer ready and
up to the job?
Are employers really able to take on the full burden of responsibility for
training apprentices as part of their usual business?
• Government’s own figures show that around 81% of employers
have three or fewer apprentices
• Employers with so few apprentices may well struggle to run their
own apprenticeship programme
• SMEs will lack the economies of scale that larger employers
experience
• The proposed funding changes mean that employers are likely to
have to claim money spent on apprenticeship training back
through the tax system.
• For the employers concerned, this will result in increased
numbers of evidence-based audits to prove how their money has
been spent on apprenticeships
• How will small and medium (SME) companies cope with
this?

Employers and Ofsted
• The issue will be employers having to go through arduous
Ofsted inspections.
• Training organisations that currently receive government
funding direct for apprentices go through a rigorous and
thorough, resource consuming audit process that provides
the public with an assurance of money spent correctly.
• What about the negative impact when the programme
quality and other requirements are not what it should be
and an employer is not performing?
• This could be devastating for the employer and lead to loss
of contracts as customers distance themselves from the
bad publicity.

Providers don’t just deliver
apprenticeships! (added value)
• Training providers go further than just delivering apprenticeships.
They:
• make the process easy for employers by hiding the wiring of the
often complex apprenticeship funding system from businesses,
and
• provide vital support in recruiting, managing and training
apprentices.
It is clear that it is likely that, unless training providers continue to
drive and manage apprenticeship demand, there will be a sharp
decline in apprenticeship take up
The capacity for training delivery has been developed over a number
of years. The uncertainty within the college and private training
provider network is likely to sweep this aside leading to an
irreversible dismantling of the skills infrastructure . This is being
missed by employers until it is too late.

Things We Can Do
The change will happen and its best to make changes:
• Get to know the Apprenticeship Standards and Assessment Plans relevant to your
work
• See what will affect you and begin to plan your response
• Have your say
• Get involved in the governments consulting on new Standards and Assessment
Plans; it may still be possible to influence the process and outcomes
• Ensure sure we network with potential Apprentice Assessment Organisations and
keep ourselves informed of their preparations: this will help us to prepare for the
changes
• We need to ensure we build relationships with employers; supporting them and
removing the burden in dealing with the complexities of the new funding mechanism
whilst guiding them on apprenticeship content

The future of employer engagement in light of changes in the apprenticeship arena

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