Apprenticeships are becoming more demanding and giving apprentices more time in off-the-job training, according to the Department for Education.

In a report released today, the DfE reveals how there has been “a significant shift to apprenticeships with higher expected training intensity relative to the previous year”.

This is in the context of a steep drop in apprenticeship starts, down by a quarter, during the past year.

The report presents an analysis, by the Institute for Apprenticeships, of government data for the first two quarters of the academic year in 2017-18 compared with the same period in 2016-17.

Impact of changes to apprenticeship policy

It provides an “early insight” into the impact of changes to the apprenticeships programme made last year, which mean that apprenticeships must last at least 12 months and have a minimum of 20 per cent off-the-job training.

There has been a move “towards higher-level apprenticeships and to subjects with greater training requirements”, according to the report.

It says: “We estimate the expected total off-the job training in the first two quarters of the 2017-18 academic year decreased by 8 per cent relative to the same period in 2016-17, compared to a decrease in starts in the same period of 25 per cent.”

The report adds: “We judge that the level of training in 2017-18 is likely to be greater than we estimate, indicating that there is likely to have been little or no reduction in the level of training this year compared to last.”

Calls for further reforms

Responding to the findings, Mark Dawe, chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers, said: “Those who support rigid implementation of the 20 per cent off-the-job training rule might take encouragement that the fall in hours is not as great relatively as the fall in starts, but the fact is that it’s a decrease on when there was no minimum percentage rule at all. Employers find it either too much of a barrier in terms of cost and staff backfill or too difficult to interpret in terms of what counts as on-the-job and off-the-job training.”

He added: “We even heard examples during National Apprenticeship Week of high-level apprentices at big-name employers ignoring the rule and learning in their own time. AELP has been discussing with the DfE a revised set of official guidance to help employers interpret the rule, which is urgently needed because it should result in an increase in off-the-job hours at the workplace, but the rule needs to be reviewed on a standard-by-standard and level-by-level basis.”

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