The Royal Town Planning Institute (RTPI) has questioned the Institute for Apprenticeship’s (IfA) ability to assess professional standards, after it rejected the assessment plan for chartered town planning degree-level apprenticeships.

The plan was developed by the Chartered Town Planner Apprenticeship Trailblazer Employer Group and the RTPI. Following the setback of the IfA rejection, universities will not be able to recruit students as planned this September.

The trailblazer group has lodged an appeal against the IfA’s decision and is expecting a ruling in the summer.

‘Employers are still passengers’

Co-chair Philip Ridley said: “Employers urgently need to take on chartered town planner apprentices to help deliver the country’s place-shaping agenda, and especially younger people who are the future of the profession. Government reforms of apprenticeships were intended to put employers in the driving seat - this decision shows that we are still passengers.”

RTPI chief executive Victoria Hills said: “The RTPI firmly disagrees with the IfA’s judgement on the validity of the proposed [end-point assessment] which is in line with the high standard [that has been] in place to assess professional competence in all our chartered members for 50 years.

“The IfA’s insistence on some aspects of assessment being applied across all professions belies a lack of understanding of individual professions and an inflexible approach that prevents a diverse pipeline of new talent from entering the industry. With the number of apprentices falling 25 per cent year on year, something is clearly going wrong.”

The IfA lacks a “good understanding of the role of chartered professional bodies and their well-established and rigorous assessment methods”, she added.

Appeal being considered

More than 20 employers and six universities are working to recruit chartered town planning degree apprentices this September, after the government approved the principle of a chartered town planning apprenticeship in May 2017 and the IfA endorsed the scheme’s apprenticeship standard in January this year.

But in April, the IfA cited a number of concerns in the assessment method and did not approve it.

A spokesperson for the IfA said: “The chartered town planner apprenticeship trailblazer group has submitted an appeal regarding the chartered town planning degree apprenticeship. We are currently considering this appeal and will respond to the trailblazer group in accordance with our appeals procedure.”