The Essential Guide to Teaching New Apprenticeships

Steve Ingle

• Publisher: Learning Matters
• Year: 2021
• ISBN:
  9781529758870
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Pedagogía
• Subtopic: Educación de adultos

Practical advice for apprenticeship teachers and trainers. ?How to? support on:

· Understanding the ways in which standards-based apprenticeships are different

· Mapping to the Level 4 Assessor/Coach apprenticeship standard

· Adapting teaching and training approaches for new standards-based apprenticeships

· Working with all of the other people involved with apprenticeships

· Effective ongoing assessment for vocational learners

· Vocational coaching, progress monitoring and effective target setting

· Planning for the continuing development of professional skills · Delivering a high-quality apprenticeship programme

1 An Introduction to the New Apprenticeships

apprentice, n. and adj.

A learner of a craft; one who is bound by legal agreement to serve an employer in the exercise of some handicraft, art, trade, or profession, for a certain number of years, with a view to learn its details and duties, in which the employer is reciprocally bound to instruct.

Oxford English Dictionary

In this chapter

In this chapter you will learn about:

• the development of apprenticeships over time
• definitions of vocational learning
• the apprenticeship journey from agreeing a standard to end-point assessment (EPA)
• the different roles and organisations involved with delivering and assessing new apprenticeships

What is an apprenticeship?

Ask ten different people what an apprenticeship means to them and you may get ten different responses! One area they might agree on, however, is that apprenticeships are about helping someone to learn something new. In this regard, the real essence of an apprenticeship has remained unchanged since its introduction back in the Middle Ages. Various professionals have explored the history of apprenticeships in England (Evans, 2011; Mirza-Davies, 2015; Armitage and Cogger, 2019), highlighting a number of key milestones in the development of apprentice programmes as we might know them today:

The Middle Ages–1900: Contracts were drawn up between young apprentices and their ‘Masters’ working in the medieval guilds of trade and craftsmen, for example weavers, candlemakers, tanners, masons, cobblers and bookbinders. Once an apprenticeship was complete, sometimes lasting up to seven years, young apprentices could progress to become a ‘journeyman’, earning a wage for their skilled work, on their way to becoming an experienced Master craftsman themselves. This arrangement for ‘time-served’ training and experience in a given trade was formalised in law in 1563, with ‘The Statute of Artificers’, sometimes known as the Statute of Apprentices.

1900–1992: Apprenticeships became more wide ranging in occupations such as shipbuilding, plumbing and electrical work. By the 1960s, it was estimated that a third of boys leaving school went on to an apprenticeship. However, concerns over the quality of apprenticeship training began to increase with criticisms from trade unions and employers’ associations that apprenticeships focused too much on the length of time served rather than the development of apprentices’ skills through high-quality training and development.

1993–2010: A steep decline in the number of apprentices promoted government reform and the introduction of the ‘Modern Apprenticeship’, which focused on the achievement of qualifications such as national vocation qualifications (NVQs) rather than time served. The new millennium brought further changes as minimum standards were introduced with ‘Intermediate Apprenticeships’ becoming available at Level 2 (GCSE level) and ‘Advanced Apprenticeships’ at Level 3 (GCE A-level).

Young apprenticeship programmes were introduced to appeal to 14–16-year-olds at school, who were looking for more engaging, work-related, study options. The upper age limit of 25 was removed, making an apprenticeship a possible training route open to all. The ‘National Apprenticeship Week’ was introduced in 2007, as a way to highlight the apprenticeship route as a valid alternative to other more academic qualifications and pathways.

2010–2014: Higher Apprenticeships were first introduced in 2010 to provide a progression route to study at levels 4 and 5, followed by degree level apprenticeships in 2015, at levels 6 and 7 equivalent to qualifications available in universities and higher education institutions. In a bid to improve quality, the government set a minimum apprenticeship duration of one year, along with the requirement for apprentices to develop their English and mathematics skills if they had not already achieved a minimum GCSE standard on leaving school.

Various government reports and reviews into vocational learning also helped to shape the development of apprenticeship reforms in England. These include the Tomlinson Report (2004), the Letich Report on Skills (2006) and Professor Alison Wolf’s (2011) Review of Vocational Education. In 2012, the government commissioned entrepreneur and educator Doug Richard to carry out an independent review of the apprenticeship system, to address ongoing concerns about quality and the impact of apprenticeships to meet employer’s needs and the country’s skills gaps.

The Richard Review of Apprenticeships (2012) proposed a number of important recommendations aimed at improving the overall quality and status of apprenticeships. These included redesigning apprenticeships around set industry standards which reflected the needs of employers, the importance of valid and reliable independent assessment at the end of an apprenticeship, and significant changes to the funding arrangements for apprenticeships. Richard’s recommendations began to shape the government’s apprenticeship reform programme and the new employer-designed apprenticeship system we have today.

2015–present: In 2015, the government published its ‘Apprenticeships (in England): vision for 2020’, including an aspiration to create 3 million apprenticeships by 2020. In 2016, the Report of the Independent Panel on Technical Education, chaired by Lord Sainsbury, and the OECD report on Building Skills for All (2016) provided a number of further recommendations affecting apprenticeships and technical and vocational education more broadly. And so began a significant transition away from the previous apprenticeship ‘framework’ system that had been delivered since the introduction of the Apprenticeships, Skills, Children and Learning Act in 2009, towards the new apprenticeships.

From frameworks to standards

The Specification of Apprenticeship Standards for England (SASE) set out the framework of competencies that apprentices used to have to complete, in order to achieve their full apprenticeship qualification. SASE frameworks were designed to prepare learners for work in a range of different occupations in a given sector area, for example business administration, customer service, hospitality or health care.

Apprentices were required to complete a range of different qualifications and components assessed throughout their learning programme, which included:

• achievement of competency and technical knowledge qualifications, such as NVQs and BTECS
• personal learning and thinking skills (PLTS)
• employee rights and responsibilities
• relevant English, maths and information and communication technology (ICT) qualifications, where required.

Although many apprentices were able to successfully complete and achieve their frameworks, there was often criticism from employers that these programmes were not fit for purpose. As highlighted in the Richard Review (2012) employers argued that learners did not always develop the skills and behaviours needed to perform a specific job role successfully. SASE frameworks had not been designed by employers and were often seen as a collection of different qualifications and competencies that did little to meet the specific needs of businesses and their workforce.

In response to these criticisms, the very first employer-designed apprenticeship standards were introduced, following close consultation with employer and stakeholder groups known as ‘trailblazers’. A trailblazer group brought together a group of employers who reflected the broad range of large and small companies who employ people in a given occupation. Each group is required to have a least ten different employers, including smaller businesses, who represented the size and spread of their sector. Together, along with representation from relevant professional bodies and trade associations, they worked to develop the ‘standard’; the minimum knowledge, skills and behaviours (KSBs) that an apprentice would need to be able to demonstrate by the end of their learning programme, to show mastery of their occupation. After development by the trailblazer groups, a ‘route panel’ of industry experts ensures that each standard is fit for purpose, before apprentices can be recruited and trained.

Figure 1.1 shows some of the key differences in approach between the older SASE framework apprenticeships and the new employer-designed apprenticeship standards.

Figure 1.1 The new apprenticeship journey

The apprenticeship levy

To help meet the government’s target to expand the number of new apprenticeships significantly, the apprenticeship levy was introduced in 2017, as a way to support the funding of apprenticeship training for all employers. Large employers, with a pay bill of over £3 million, are required to pay a levy of 0.5 per cent of their total annual pay bill. Organisations can access these funds, through their apprenticeship service accounts, to train new employees, or to upskill existing staff as long as the individual requires significant new KSBs to be occupationally competent in the job role.

Funds raised through the levy are also used to support apprenticeship training costs for smaller businesses who are required to pay 5 per cent towards the funding of training. If an employer has fewer than 50 employees, the government will pay all the costs of apprenticeship training, but the employer must pay at least the relevant national minimum wage to the apprentice depending on their age and the year of apprenticeship training they are in. Employers must also pay for any benefits and travel costs for their apprentices and release them to undertake their off-the-job (OffTJ) training entitlement.

Making the transition

So, although the general notion of an apprenticeship has been around for hundreds of years, the format, approach, composition, funding and learning focus have all changed considerably. This rest of book focuses on the new apprenticeships, and how best to ensure they are delivered effectively. You may be very experienced in delivering and supporting apprentices on the old SASE frameworks, you might be working with some apprentices completing a framework and others just starting a standards programme or you may be getting to grips with apprenticeships for the very first time.

The last date for new apprentices to start on framework programmes was July 2020, to complete no later than July 2025. If you are working with learners completing framework style apprenticeships, this book is also designed to help prepare you for the full transition to employer-designed standards apprenticeships.

Apprenticeships today

As we have explored, an apprenticeship can be simply defined today as a job with a formal programme of training. Today’s apprentices are employed and received a salary. They work alongside experienced staff and participate in both ‘on-the-job’ an...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Acknowledgements
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Acknowledgements
• Contents
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• 1 An Introduction to the New Apprenticeships
• 2 Programme Planning
• 3 Effective Apprenticeship Teaching and Training
• 4 Ongoing Assessment for Vocational Learners
• 5 Progress Monitoring, Personal Development and Target Setting
• 6 Meeting the Requirements of High-quality Apprenticeships
• References
• Index