There should be a major shift in vocational education in the UK to mirror that of northern Europe, where vocational education starts much earlier and is more focused on jobs. I believe employers should take the lead on apprenticeships and vocational education - and the way forward is about reshaping the curriculum to make it more vocationally based. 

I think there needs to be an employer-led governance structure for apprenticeships to help young people transition to a career. Indeed, this is what the government is actually trying to do with the plans for 14-19 education. This month, the chancellor unveils his Autumn Statement and there’s a widely held belief that the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (Bis) could announce new measures concerning employer levies paying for apprenticeships, as well as about governance of apprenticeships and funding.

Two years ago, the industry voiced fears that apprenticeships were not of the quality needed to let us compete successfully on the world stage. The government’s response was to launch trailblazer apprenticeships - a process clearly setting out what was needed in a particular job and therefore what an apprentice needed to learn and achieve to become competent. Today there are 53 new apprenticeships ready for young people and adults to register on, and work is under way on a further 290.

This is all well and good, but estimates suggest that across the economy at least 1,500 to 2,000 new apprenticeships are needed (some estimates put the figure much higher), which means that much work is needed if the government is to reach its target of 3 million apprenticeships by 2020 while replacing all the old ones by 2017-18.

So, with the existing trailblazer process now two years old, we need a sustainable, employer-led governance structure to take over the management of the “new” apprenticeships.

I believe governance groups should be sector-based and they should:

• Manage the existing “trailblazer” groups writing new standards and assessments.
• Establish a list of priority standards that are needed across the whole sector.
• Set up new groups to write the priority standards and their assessment plans.
• Have oversight of the operation of the new apprenticeships and manage the overall quality assurance arrangements.
• Decide how best to transition and replace the old SASE apprenticeship frameworks and over what timescale.
• Set and manage the levy level and what to spend it on to match the specific sector’s priorities and needs.
• Ensure that adequate resources are in place for the training, work-based learning and mentoring of apprentices.

But I don’t think it should stop there.

The employer-led sector governance groups should:

• Decide what is the best type of vocational education for 14- to 19-year-olds to help them towards working in the economy.
• Set and oversee vocational education to ensure it is up to date and appropriate for industry.
• Have input into the curriculum to ensure it is relevant and helps young people transition from the world of education to the world of work.
• Provide young people with up-to-date information and understanding on the type and range of jobs across the economy.

Although it is self-evident that colleges and schools are responsible for education and training, if they are to teach young people the right things they need industry to tell them what that is. So I believe employers should take on the responsibility around vocational education and apprenticeships standards.

Employers should be managing not just the workforce they have, but also have an eye to the future and the people they will need to keep their business sustainable. In that sense they need to engage with colleges, university technical colleges (UTCs) and schools to help shape what is being taught.

What we ultimately need are tutors who can teach vocational courses, and out in the workplace employers will need people to teach the apprentices on the job and mentor them in moving seamlessly from the college/school environment to the work environment - and on to developing their career. 

Graham Hasting-Evans is managing director of awarding organisation NOCN