Getting more employers involved in Apprenticeships

The government’s latest statement on Apprenticeship funding reform marked a very important milestone in the journey towards a sensible approach in developing the very successful Apprenticeship programme.

Many observers did not understand how far the government has moved since announcing full support for the reforms originally set out by its advisor, Doug Richard. In the Association of Employment and Learning Providers response to the Richard review, we emphasised the commitment of training providers to engage more employers and ensure that employers were able to exercise choice in managing the government’s funding contribution towards the cost of training an apprentice.

Since then, the government has put forward a series of proposals that actually gave employers less choice. Employers have made it clear that although they want more involvement in the training programmes, they do not necessarily want to receive the funding directly. The government’s new position finally recognises the evidence we have put forward.

In previous statements, the government has said that it was important that the funding should go directly to employers. It has now moved to a position where employers should have ‘purchasing power’ and ‘control over the funding’. That is exactly the position that AELP has taken from the start.

Employers must have control over the funding but they do not necessarily have to receive the actual money from government. Employers make the decision to recruit and employ an apprentice; they decide which framework and the content of the training programme; and they choose the provider they want to work with. In essence they have the purchasing power and they have control over the funding. We know that we have to do a better job of making this control more transparent to employers but we are already working on systems that will reinforce this message. Unfortunately we have lost at least a year working on proposals that had little support from employers and were unworkable.

When the government first made its proposals for change, AELP developed a model where employers would be given choice as to whether they wanted to receive the government funding support directly or to work with their chosen provider who would manage the funding on their behalf. We used the terms choice, employer purchasing power and employer control of funding.
We now need to encourage employers more to contribute to the delivery of the training. The government does not cover the full cost of training but employers can contribute in many different ways. Many provide on-the-job support by way of mentoring, training, assessment and many employers provide training materials or facilities. We should find ways of tracking these contributions and not just focus on cash contributions as the government has done so far. AELP has made recommendations as to how we can track employer contributions and there has to be more attention given to this issue. What we do not need is a government system that sets out mandatory levels of contributions that would become a barrier for many smaller employers.

The government is continuing with its trials of funding the new Trailblazer standards for Apprenticeships using mandatory employer contributions despite the fact that the Skills Minister and the Secretary of State have expressed real concerns about this element of the system. Employers, providers, awarding organisations, sector bodies and government should now take this opportunity to agree a new model that puts real decision making and choice in the hands of employers. Organisations that represent employers such as CITB, CBI and Federation of Small Business have all supported the change of approach set out in the government’s recent statement, so it is time that all of those that want to see a new way forward agree how we can make it easy for many more employers to get involved in Apprenticeships. Then we can continue to grow a high quality programme.

Stewart Segal is chief executive of the Association of Employment and Learning Providers (www.aelp.org.uk)