'More needs to be done' on apprenticeships

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Graham Hoyle, chief executive of the Association of Learning Providers, speaks to ePolitix.com about the key role learning providers play in apprenticeships.

What are the Association of Learning Providers' views on apprenticeships? Why does the ALP consider them to be so important?

For the vast majority of ALP members, apprenticeships are core business. Many of our members started receiving government funding through apprenticeships a decade ago.

The Association of Learning Providers believes that apprenticeships are, and must remain, at the core of the skills development strategy for the country. The current political support for apprenticeships does seem to be cross-party and builds on the Leitch report, positioning apprenticeships as critical.

Apprenticeships are fundamentally employer designed, employer delivered and delivered as workplace located training. Many people don't stop and look at the implications of that. That model happens across the whole spectrum of training and it is not fully recognised as being at the core of our skills development programme.

Is it important to promote apprenticeship schemes through an annual week of events? What message does the ALP hope that National Apprenticeship Week will convey?

It is very important that there is one, and preferably more, events that bring apprenticeships into the public's attention. The concept of focusing in on what is critically important has to be a good thing. Our members, rest assured, will be looking to support it.

What role do independent work based learning providers have in providing apprenticeships?

The vast majority of apprenticeships are delivered through us, rather than by us. As mentioned before, apprenticeships are delivered at the workplace, by employers, on the basis of frameworks that have been designed by employers.

Having said this, the majority of apprenticeships are found in small and medium-sized companies (SMEs), in groups of one or two. There are 'blue chip' corporations with internal training doing excellent jobs, however they are the minority.

There are approximately 140,000 small and medium sized employers delivering apprenticeships at the present time. If they had to put the programme together, follow it through; make sure it hits the guidelines and quality levels and deal with the bureaucratic funding structures, then they would struggle.

ALP members have to resolve these issues, which is one of the reasons that we are very concerned with the recent Conservative proposals to simply give the money to employers for them to run. Some employers can do this, and want to this, but 140,000 SMEs will not all have the resources to deal with such a policy.

Are apprenticeships becoming increasingly important as people seek to re-skill in the economic downturn?

I think that apprenticeships are viewed as very important and this is demonstrated by the numerical increase in participants in programmes.

I was involved in the process when modern apprenticeships began to be developed in 1993/94. At that stage apprenticeships had been withering on the vine, with the exception of construction, manufacturing, engineering and other traditional apprenticeships. Modern apprenticeships opened up the concept, by moving into the service sector, and there was an immediate and considerable boost from 1994-97, shifting the number of apprenticeships up to around 70,000 to 80,000. As New Labour often state, they have tripled that number over the last few decades.

New Labour has certainly done a great deal to promote apprenticeships, but employers still need to put their hands in their pockets, more so than the government. Labour has boosted apprentice numbers up to a quarter of a million and would like for the figures to go up to half a million. The key is to whether employers will take up that challenge. This is achievable, as we see increasing numbers of employers interested in apprenticeship schemes.

We know that young people want apprenticeships, we know that their parents want there to be access to apprenticeships. The challenge is to get more and more employers to focus in on apprenticeships at a level that has not been done so already. The best way to do this is to use the testimony of the 140,000 or so SMEs that currently utilise apprenticeships.

Do you feel the government has done enough to promote apprenticeships, both financially and educationally, as a career path?

If the question is, have the government done enough to promote apprenticeships financially, the answer is definitely yes.

Educationally, however, not enough has been done to promote apprenticeships in schools. The intent is there, as the main political parties are all sincere in arguing for the importance of apprenticeships. However, the rate at which the government has ensured that apprenticeships are brought to the attention of young people and their families has been abysmally slow.

We know that more than 50 per cent of people who undertake apprenticeships did not sign up to be an apprentice - they were moved into the schemes having started work.

We have heard anecdotally of numerous people who started off in work and then moved into apprenticeships. More needs to be done at the education level to promote apprenticeships whilst young people are still at school.

Barely three months ago, there were government attempts to push a bill through Parliament which would have said that schools have a responsibility to bring apprenticeships to the attention of schoolchildren only where it is in their interest.

We disagreed with that rhetoric and fought against it. Fortunately the clause was changed at the eleventh hour. We now have a bill which says that schools have the responsibility to tell all young people - not just those they consider it would interest most - about apprenticeships. We may be moving into a new era where a legislative opportunity is enabling the wider community to ensure that there is greater education about apprenticeships.

Would the level of education about apprenticeships be dependent on who the next government is?

No, one has to say that the opposition parties were on our side in amending the bill. Those parties ought to be more prepared to push these plans through than the government itself.

Irrespective of what happens in the general election, we have a strong footing across the political arena to ensure that the commitment to apprenticeships is honoured.

What work has the Association of Learning Providers undertaken to promote apprenticeships?

Promoting apprenticeships is at the core of who we are and what we do. We are especially interested in getting more learning providers into schools with the message of the effectiveness of apprenticeships.

When the Department of Children, Schools and Families was created 18 months or so ago, I had a very interesting conversation with one of its senior officials and suggested utilising inset days to train teachers in the understanding of apprenticeships.

A training day for teachers on the effectiveness of apprenticeships could involve sitting down a group of teachers with two or three ex-pupils, and a few local employers, and discussing the apprenticeship options open to young people.

Regrettably this idea could not come to fruition, as the DCSF does not have the ability to instruct local headteachers how they should utilise their inset days.

At the Association of Learning Providers, we promote apprenticeships day in-day out. Our providers do go into schools and they convert non-apprentices into apprentices.

What forthcoming issues or campaigns are going to be of particular relevance to the Association of Learning Providers throughout 2010?

Aside from National Apprenticeship Week, which is of great importance to the ALP, the important objective is to ensure that all parties are aware of our positions on apprenticeships and making sure that there is a real level of understanding. This is of particular importance over the next four months or so, as we do not know which party will be in government post-summer.

We are especially eager to influence and educate the Conservative front bench, as they create their manifesto and develop their policies.

We are concerned about some Conservative policies, for example they have the idea that Level 2 apprenticeships are not as important as their Level 3 counterparts. Over half of apprenticeships are at Level 2, the vast majority of core business takes place at Level 2 and so to focus on Level 3 alone is unrealistic.

There are certainly a number of concerns that an incoming government would have to come to terms with very quickly. We would like for the next government, from whichever party, to be able to truly hit the ground running. This is an ongoing dialogue, as you may expect.

What other concerns does the Association of Learning Providers have around apprenticeships?

With the creation of the Skills Funding Agency for Adults and the YPLA for 14 to19-year-olds, with the money and responsibility necessary being given to local authorities, we have a halfway house for 16 to 18 apprenticeships.

We have, pleasingly, received the confirmation that local authorities will not be making the decisions as to what providers are contracted to do. We have won the battle that says that local authorities should not be determining the contractors for 16 to 18 apprenticeship provision.

We need to emphasise that apprenticeships are different from all other quality learning routes in that they are not training places at college, schools or university. They are actual jobs with employers who will make decisions affecting the apprentices.

We are currently moving towards local authorities taking the responsibility for all the youngsters in their patch and determining how many stay in school, how many go to college and how many undertake apprenticeships. This will then, in theory, lead to a situation where the number of NEETs in the UK decreases, if it is not avoided entirely.