I hate to put a dampener on the celebrations that will be central to National Apprenticeship Week because there is a lot to be happy about. But there are also lots of things to worry about, which need urgent attention.

I’ll start with the celebrations about how great apprenticeships can be. What better place to find evidence of this than the Tes #InspiringApprentices campaign, which shows examples of how the programme really does work for thousands of people?

Like most people in education, I’m always more moved and excited when I hear people tell their own stories than by official statistics, policy documents and political spin. The #InspiringApprentices campaign is great - real people telling how their involvement in the programme has helped them in life and in work.

It’s exactly why I’ve always loved Learning and Work Institute’s Festival of Learning, in which adult learners tell their stories and get the acclamation they deserve for their achievements and as role models for others. It always reminds me why it all matters.

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There are other things to be positive about. The introduction of the apprenticeship levy has brought many major employers to the programme for the first time, got Treasury more involved and made the programme a priority for the Department for Education.

The emphases on new standards, on at least 20 per cent off-the-job training, on apprenticeships at all levels are policy shifts, which, when they settle down, will help to improve the programme.

I do, however, worry about where the programme is going. There are all sorts of issues which crawl out from any objective analysis. Numbers are still way behind where they were before the reforms and it looks increasingly likely that the ill-judged 3 million target will be missed.

Colleges are being starved of funding to support apprentices in small and medium-sized businesses, there is confusion about how the new T levels will fit in, there has been an enormous growth in higher level apprenticeships mainly carried out by senior staff in large employers, whilst numbers of young people in apprenticeships have dropped and we still suffer from a lack of coherent vision and strategy for the programme.

A new vision for apprenticeships

National Apprenticeships Week is a great time to propose what a new strategy and vision for apprenticeships will need to encompass.

The vision should pivot around two vital roles for apprenticeships - to offer great starts for people in successful careers and progression in work, and to help support an industrial strategy which truly brings inclusive economic growth to all parts of the country.

Currently, any contribution to either of those ambitions is more through serendipity than through design or strategy.

The new standards and the funding regime don’t incentivise career progression enough. In many sectors, it is almost inconceivable that an apprentice on the lowest level starting point could ever make it to a higher or degree apprenticeship.

Progession routes

It should be easy, it should be the norm that apprentices will progress over time in their industry to ever higher levels. More degree apprenticeships should go to people progressing from level 4 and level 5 than starting without an apprenticeship at all.

The links to the industrial strategy are weak and need attention. A good apprenticeship programme would support employers to adopt new technologies and business techniques, improve productivity and develop all the workforce.

A good programme would be planned as part of the government’s interventions to stimulate economic growth in regions lagging from less investment. As it stands, the DfE has no lever to use to make that happen now.

A vision encompassing progression and industrial strategy could come out of a new national partnership between government, trades unions, employers, local government and colleges.

‘Colleges need investment’

It could use a modest top-slice of the levy or a new strategic investment fund to intervene to address access issues and market failures in every part of the country. It could help make sure that employers were able to embed the apprenticeship offer into wider business and workforce development plans. It could pick growth sectors and make sure that apprentices are able to be certain about future career progression pathways.

The same vision would help to address the need for greater investment in colleges. Colleges need investment to enable them to deliver high-quality, off-the-job training, alongside T levels and higher technical qualifications as well as providing the lower level education which helps young people and adults to get ready to access apprenticeships.

It would support them to take a long-term view of how this all works together, develop their employer relationships for the long-term and recruit and retain the skilled and experienced staff they need.

All of this is within our grasp. All it needs is a bold replacement of the 3 million starts target and honest debate about what we all want and what the country needs from what is a great programme that could be even better.

David Hughes is the chief executive of the Association of Colleges