Employer views on fixing apprenticeships

Tristram Hooley, chief research officer at the Institute of Student Employers, considers employers' recommendations for improving the apprenticeship system - which has been a cause for concern since at least the 16th century

Apprenticeships continue to be big news in UK education policy. The government recently revealed that it is going to miss its much trumpeted target of three million apprentices by 2020. But there is still a political consensus: everyone agrees that we need more apprenticeships and more young people should consider them instead of going to university.

That enthusiasm, as well as rocketing numbers of apprentices in traditional graduate employers, led me to ask back in April 'is the day of the graduate over?' (spoiler: the short answer was no). Over the last couple of months I've been talking to employers to get deeper insights about how they are engaging with the apprenticeship system - here are some of the findings of that research.

Apprenticeships: a short history

The report discusses the history of apprenticeships going as far back as 1563. To summarise, we could say that everyone has always worried that the apprenticeship system isn't very good. To improve things, government has adopted the strategy of regularly rebooting the system, renaming everything and reorganising how everything works. So far this hasn't really worked out.

The current system was launched in 2015 when the apprenticeship levy was introduced, effectively transferring the cost of the system to employers. Employers were promised that in return for this they would be in control of the new system and that good employers would get back more than they paid in. The apprenticeship levy came into force in 2017 and our report shows that employers have been implementing it, often with difficulty, ever since.

What's the problem?

Employers reported that the new apprenticeship system had been difficult to put into practice. It took them considerable resources to embed apprenticeships in their firms. Despite these teething problems they were supportive of the system and wanted to make it work.

Employers described several challenges that they felt were disrupting the system. These related to:

• insufficient funding with little or no transparency about where money was going
• too much bureaucracy
• difficulties in actually delivering apprenticeships in the context of real businesses
• dealing with negative perceptions of apprenticeships from young people, parents and schools.

Taken together these problems meant that many employers were frustrated about the current system.

Why this matters for higher education

There are at least three reasons why higher education should pay closer attention with apprenticeships.

Firstly, many (107 at the last count) higher education institutions are now launching degree and Masters (level 7) apprenticeships. If these routes continue to grow they may soon make up an important funding stream for institutions.

Secondly, apprenticeships are the first serious competitor that higher education has faced as a route to highly skilled jobs. So far they are only competing at the margins, but if employers continue to embed apprenticeships within their business they have the potential to change post-18 choices substantially.

Finally, and perhaps most surprisingly to many in higher education, many employers are using apprenticeships to deliver their graduate schemes. Apprenticeships offer a way to organise a structured development programme for new staff with a dedicated funding stream. Given this, it is unsurprising that employers have made use of them for this purpose.

What needs to happen next?

The new apprenticeship system has had a challenging first couple of years. Lots of things have not gone the way that the government or employers would have hoped. Yet, it also shows that employers are broadly supportive of the system, if the problems can be solved.

We have identified four principles that should guide government as it moves the apprenticeship system forward.

1. Stability - business thrives in a stable environment. The government should seek to ensure that the system remains as stable as possible and that any new innovations are introduced carefully and with employer consultation.
2. Transparency - the apprenticeship system, and particularly decisions about funding, needs to be made more transparent. Employers and other stakeholders should be able to clearly see why decisions are being made and what the consequences of these decisions are.
3. Flexibility - systems need to be designed with an understanding of the operational requirements of running a business. Employers are often expected to fall into line with norms imported from the education system.
4. Employer ownership - the government rightly committed to the principle of employer ownership of the system when it was launched. It is important that this principle guides all future thinking about the system and that the idea of employer ownership is operationalised further.

Read the full report, Stability, transparency, flexibility and employer ownership: Employer recommendations for improving the apprenticeship system, to find ten recommendations for fixing apprenticeships.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the position of HECSU/Prospects

Written by

Tristram Hooley

Chief research officer

Institute of Student Employers