Memorandum submitted by RMI/REMIT
WHAT IS
REMIT?—AN
INTRODUCTION
Retail Motor Industry Training (ReMIT) is a
wholly owned subsidiary of the Retail Motor Industry Federation
Limited (RMI), the trade association representing the motor vehicle
retail and repair industry in the UK.
1. The RMI established ReMIT in 1983 at
the commencement of the Youth Training Scheme (YTS)—it was
a natural extension of its involvement in the training of young
people, following the introduction of the National Craft Certificate
in 1942.
2. The RMI has a membership of 10,000 businesses
in the retail motor sector, an industry providing employment to
more than 600,000 people. It is a company limited by guarantee—each
of its members in effect a shareholder—so ReMIT is owned
by the retail motor industry employers it seeks to serve. It currently
manages the learning provision for 7,500 learners working for
4,500 employers: 90% of the provision is for Modern Apprenticeships
(MA) in Light Vehicle Engineering.
3. ReMIT works with employers ranging from
major manufacturers such as Ford, DCUK and VW to SMEs and smaller
businesses—predominantly RMI members—which comprise
the majority of businesses in the sector. Manufacturer-led programmes
drive skills development improvement in the sector and the nature
of the manufacturer/franchised dealer relationship means that
franchised dealers are significant employers of learners on MA
programmes. Many manufacturer MA programmes are integrated with
the manufacturers' own post-apprenticeship continuing training
and development programmes for technicians.
4. ReMIT's services comprise working with
employers to promote the use of modern apprenticeships to address
future skills requirements, encouraging and identifying vacancies
with employers, then recruiting, assessing and placing applicants
in suitable placements and managing them through to completion
of the MA.
5. ReMIT is a "not for profit organisation",
with all profits reinvested to improve the quality and extent
of work-based learning (WBL). ReMIT has recently invested £2
million in developing a Centre of Technical Excellence at Croydon,
Surrey, where learners will receive training using state-of-the-art
electronic diagnostic and other workshop equipment. However, most
learning provision is delivered in partnership with the Further
Education sector, either through local colleges on a day release
basis or with a limited number of colleges on national block release
basis.
6. ReMIT's engagement with employers enables
it to be aware of the industry's concerns over meeting future
skills needs. The sector has an established track record of supporting
and valuing apprenticeships, but ReMIT believes that further initiatives
are needed to solve the problem of attracting the quality of recruit
that today's motor industry demands.
7. ReMIT believes that reliance on a single
index of success—100% completion of all elements of the
framework— does not reflect the value of WBL, and recommends
replacing this with a "distance-travelled measure" which
would encourage more learners, parents and employers to take up
MAs.
8. ReMIT, therefore, welcomes the opportunity
to present written evidence, following the publication of the
Government's skills strategy "21st Century Skills: Realising
our Potential", and to further strands of the enquiry as
they are announced in the future.
THE RETAIL
MOTOR INDUSTRY:
RAISING THE
ATTRACTION OF
MAS TO
PROSPECTIVE RECRUITS
Schooling: A conflict of interests
9. The modern motor vehicle is increasingly
technologically sophisticated, both in terms of the amount of
computer technology in engine management systems and in the use
of new construction materials such as aluminium and carbon fibre.
There is every reason to expect that the pace of change will increase,
requiring new skills from those employed at all levels in the
industry. The demands placed on learners are such that some employers
will only consider applicants with three GCSEs at grade C or better,
two of which must be English and Mathematics.
10. Schools, however, are under pressure
to encourage successful GCSE students to stay on into the sixth
form instead of moving—at 16—into employment and vocational
study.
11. ReMIT receives 15,000 applications a
year for 3,000 placements—only 40% of its applicants have
GCSE grades, predicted or real, that would lead it to recommend
AMA or FMA placements. If the career guidance in schools does
not appreciate the level of achievement demanded then quite possibly
it does not communicate the value and status of a career in the
retail motor industry, and its changing demands.
12. To counter this, ReMIT is working with
a number of schools in implementing and promoting the Government's
14-16 vocational qualification policy, assisting with work experience
and placements.
13. This initiative is popular with employers
who see the value of the programme in identifying committed future
Modern Apprentices, but support may weaken should they find that
many of the supported learners, on reaching 16, are steered into
staying on at school.
14. The extension of Education Maintenance
Allowances (EMA) is designed to encourage more young people to
stay on at school or go into Further Education, regardless of
whether their aptitude would better suit them for work-based training.
If the EMA encourages those who would otherwise stay outside a
planned quality learning route to "stay on" it is beneficial—however,
if it encourages those who would be better served by a high-quality
work-based route to stay on, it would be counter-productive to
the National Skills Strategy.
"Distance travelled", not 100% completion
15. The reliance on 100% completion of all
the elements of the MA framework as a single index of success
does not maximise what a WBL programme achieves for the learner—it
undervalues what they may have achieved, even though they have
been placed from school or unemployment into a job, received training
on an approved programme, and achieved an NVQ. It would be better
to demonstrate and promote the full range of useful and usable
achievements gained by virtually every apprentice, culminating
in job retention, or even promotion, regardless of whether they
finished the course successfully or not. The numbers entering
MAs will only increase if young people, their parents, teachers,
advisers and employers believe that it is a high quality route
worth taking.
A need for more effective marketing
16. ReMIT commits substantial funds to what
is, in essence, generic MA brand-awareness raising, and has found
that advertising and promoting MAs in conjunction with the strong
branding of major clients has been most effective in recruiting
good quality applicants. ReMIT has been able to place many of
those not successful with their first choice with other employers.
Supporting leading brand-based MA promotion by focused public
funding should produce an improved recruitment response, and would
be measurable and cost-effective.
EMPLOYERS: GREATER
CHOICE AND
CONTROL OVER
PUBLICLY FUNDED
TRAINING
A true partnership with Learning Providers
17. ReMIT believes Learning Providers, particularly
those with as much depth of learner engagement as it has, are
far better fitted than Further Education colleges to help employers
get more choice and opportunity out of government-funded training.
18. This works with a number of car and
truck manufacturers—eg Ford, DCUK, VW, DAF, Scania, Iveco,
and Volvo—who deliver national MA programmes. These manufacturers
choose to work in partnership with a national provider like ReMIT,
with an arrangement which enables them to retain overall control
over the programme without having to employ their own staff to
manage or administer it. Although the manufacturer agrees the
overall standards and content of the programme, the MAs are actually
employed by the individual franchised dealerships.
19. Manufacturers need to maintain and develop
the skills base of those working in their franchises over the
long term. In conjunction with ReMIT, they have developed ways
of integrating some of their training requirements into the MA
programme. Where these requirements exceed those covered by current
funding, the manufacturer, or the franchised dealers, will themselves
fund the extra costs. The Ford Master Technician Programme is
a good example, and provides an ongoing programme of development
and annual skills update to maintain competency during working
life. An introduction and elements of the Ford Master Technician
Programme are incorporated into the Ford MA programme. This enables
the successful apprentice, on completion, to move on seamlessly
into Ford's continuing skill development programme.
A need for more flexibility
20. ReMIT recommends that greater flexibility
should be introduced into the training programmes to cater for
a wider diversity of aptitude and talent among learners.
21. For example, some truck employers felt
that they were missing out on a number of potential new applicants
by having an AMA only policy. They wanted to make offers to potential
applicants that virtually guaranteed to the learner a successful
completion of an MA, but believed that, in their industry, it
took a while to determine whether a new recruit was likely to
be successful at an AMA.
22. The truck employers wanted to offer
apprenticeships to more marginal applicants but felt they could
only do this if there was more flexibility in the timing of choice
of programme. As much of the learning for the first year of both
AMA and FMA programmes is similar, they would prefer their recruits
not to have to make a choice until the end of year one. Unfortunately,
under current provision, learners who start on an FMA and transfer
before completion to an AMA are counted for learner provider performance
purposes as non-achieving, a failure (this negative is not removed
even if they subsequently complete the AMA!). This is discouraging
the adoption of a more learner-friendly approach.
December 2003
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