The government should review, and come forward with proposals to strengthen, the involvement of SMEs in the Trailblazer apprenticeships scheme, a committee of MPs has recommended.
As National Apprenticeship Week 2015 begins the House of Commons Education Select Committee reports that “the level of employer involvement in the Trailblazer scheme shows that there is an appetite for greater ownership of standards among many employers”.
However, the process is at risk of being dominated by larger companies at the expense of SMEs, the report states. The committee believes that the success of the scheme will rest on whether wider industry sectors have confidence in the standards the Trailblazers have developed.
The report recommends that the government set out its expectations about what will happen following the conclusion of the Trailblazer scheme with a focus on ongoing ownership of new apprenticeship standards, how new standards will be developed, and who will provide oversight and leadership of these processes. It also states that there should be “meaningful involvement from SMEs in the post-Trailblazer environment”.
Responding to the committee’s report, Steve Radley, director of policy and strategic planning at the Construction Industry Training Board, said its proposals “hit the mark”.
"Apprenticeships should not be seen or presented as a second class option for young people. Strong efforts must be made to challenge prevailing attitudes that favour academic routes and block access to information about apprenticeships."
Graham Stuart MP, chair of the Education Committee
He said: “We need an apprenticeship system where training providers understand employers’ needs and respond to them, and where young people can make informed choices, but we need to make it simple.
“These recommendations will help to make this happen and it is vital that we see a positive response to the recommendation that the new funding regime offers SMEs the option of contracting out the administration of funding to a provider.”
Radley also welcomed another key recommendation that Level 2 apprenticeships, which require substantial training and “deliver a substantial uplift in earning power for the apprentice”, should be retained.
Along with the future of the Trailblazer scheme the committee reiterated that further effort is required to drive up the quality of apprenticeships and ensure that more employers commit to providing them for young people, as participation by 16-to-19-year-olds remains too low.
Conservative MP Graham Stuart, chair of the Education Committee, emphasised that apprenticeships should be seen as equal to academic routes: “Apprenticeships are a viable, high quality alternative to more academic routes and should not be seen or presented as a second class option for young people”, he said. “Strong efforts must be made to challenge prevailing attitudes that unduly favour academic routes and block access to information about apprenticeships.”
Key to this effort is an urgent review of the incentives for schools to provide good quality careers advice and that schools be required to work towards the Quality in Careers Standard and publish a careers plan.
The need for better reporting on the outcomes and impact of apprenticeships was also recommended with Stuart saying that “only those apprenticeships which offer substantial training and have a positive impact on income for those who complete them should receive government funding”.
“Better data on outcomes and continued efforts to expand the number of participating employers can lead to more applicants and more places.”
Also recommended was a review of the benefits provided by funding adult apprenticeships in comparison with those for young people to assess “whether more or all of the money would be better spent on 16-to-19 year-olds”.
Read the full report here
