Workplace learning experts share fears ahead of autumn statement
There is a real danger that changes to the apprenticeship system which may follow in the wake of the chancellor’s forthcoming apprenticeship levy will damage the way the UK trains young people, according to the former cabinet minister Lord Willetts.
Speaking at the European Jobs and Skills Summit in London, the former minister for universities and science, who is now executive chair of the Resolution Foundation, said British businesses were not doing enough training, but extending the notion of apprenticeships was unlikely to be the answer.
“Apprenticeships could become so broad-brush that it dilutes the brand,” said Willetts. “We cannot afford to damage the skills and qualifications of younger workers.”
In Wednesday’s autumn statement, George Osborne will outline details of a levy that will tax employers’ payrolls to provide a system of credits they can use to increase the number of apprenticeships they offer, effectively transferring ownership and administration of apprenticeships to employers. But there is widespread speculation about how the levy will work in practice, including how large the payment will be and what size of organisation it will apply to.
Alison Wolf, professor of public sector management at King’s College London, said the levy would do little to increase options for 16- and 17-year-olds and tackle systemic problems that hold back certain socioeconomic groups. But she hoped placing greater onus for running good quality apprenticeships onto employers would end what she saw as an ongoing devaluation.
“What has been happening to the quality of apprenticeships in this country is appalling,” said Wolf. “A huge number haven’t been anything that you would recognise as an apprenticeship. And a lot of them aren’t costing employers anything – they have been offered to employers as free training. You only care about something when you have made an investment in it.”
According to official figures, there were around 850,000 apprentices in the UK in 2014, a figure the government has pledged to raise to two million by the end of this parliament. The levy is likely to play a key part in increasing take-up, but the CIPD has argued that focusing on quality and perception of apprenticeships is equally important in ensuring they are seen as a viable alternative to higher education and offer genuine value to employers.
At the summit, Alison Fuller, professor of vocational education and work at University College London, said professions such as engineering and accountancy were far better suited to apprenticeships than retail, which has seen huge growth in apprentice volumes in recent years, much of it among older, existing employees.
She said: “The debate should be about quality. The definition of an apprenticeship is being stretched to cover reskilling of older adults, among other things, and we need a much more differentiated response. There is a real question over devaluation of the brand if it is being extended to cover things like company induction schemes.”
Those fears were echoed by Tony Moloney, head of education and skills at National Grid, which is one of the country’s largest employers of apprentices. “[The levy] will just drive petulance, where people say they’ll only hire graduates, or people will go to the other extreme and call everything they remotely can an apprenticeship,” he said.
But despite fears over the levy, Moloney praised the concept of apprenticeships in terms of both skill generation and broader societal value, pointing out that 95 per cent of those who joined his organisation on apprenticeship schemes were still with the business five years later.
“Apprenticeships are one of the best socioeconomic vehicles to drive participation [in the workforce] among hard-to-reach groups. We’ve been using them for 50 years and we’ll continue to do so even if they tax us into oblivion,” he said.