The time it is taking for new teaching apprenticeship standards to be approved is hindering the successful growth of the scheme, according to sector leaders. Speaking at today’s Sutton Trust summit on Better Apprenticeships, Leeds City College Group principal and chief executive Colin Booth said: “We have waiting for the FE teaching standard for about 18 months.”
He said because the standard had not been approved, the college had not received any funding for the first cohort of around 20, which meant it had cost the institution around £150,000. “We are about to go through that again in September,” said Mr Booth.
The FE learning and skills level 5 apprenticeship standard, which is currently awaiting approval from the IfA, has been in the pipeline since 2014. It has been designed as a teaching-based standard.
“Given how difficult it is to recruit teachers in engineering and maths - we have people on the waiting list, wanting to do that apprenticeship and teach engineering and maths, and the standard just isn’t available,” said Mr Booth.
‘Glacial pace’
And speaking at the same event, John Cope, head of education and skills at business organisation CBI, said the most important factors required to make the apprenticeship system workable for employers were “quality, usability and flexibility”. “The most important shift in quality is the shift from frameworks to standards,” he said. “The issue has been the glacial pace with which it has happened. This week, we are recognising the 300th standard being agreed, and the Institute for Apprenticeships says we should roughly get 700. It has taken two years to get here.”
He said with businesses having two years to spend their levy funding, “this means some businesses can’t access high-quality apprenticeships before they have to use the levy.”
Mr Cope also called for UCAS to start considering technical options, and stressed that the new T levels, due to be introduced from 2020, should not only be an alternative to A levels, but should also be “interchangeable”. “You should be able to change your mind, and you should be able to do both,” he said.
