Apprenticeships

APP 17

Written evidence submitted by the British Constructional Steelwork Association Limited (BCSA)

The British Constructional Steelwork Association Limited (BCSA) is the national organisation for the steel construction industry; its Member companies undertake the design, fabrication and erection of steelwork for all forms of construction in building and civil engineering; its Associate Members are those principal companies involved in the direct supply to all or some Members of components, materials or products. Corporate Members are clients, professional offices, etc which support the development of national specifications, design, fabrication and erection techniques, and overall industry efficiency and best practice.

On the 21st December 2011 the Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) Committee commenced an inquiry into Apprenticeships.

The Inquiry focused on the following five questions and the BCSA response is given after each:

 

1. How successful has the National Apprenticeship Service been since it was created in April 2009? Has it helped bridge the gap between the two funding Departments? (BIS and Department for Education)

BCSA- As an industry stakeholder BCSA was not aware that BIS had introduced the National Apprenticeship Service, or the work it was created to address?

BCSA works closely with the Sector Council SEMTA on all training matters and are members of the recently formed Metals Sector Strategy Group and has published a document ‘Key messages from the SEMTA Employer Engagement Process’ which outlines the achievements from the ‘Train to gain Sector Compact’.

It has been very difficult to ensure the SME employers are engaged with the availability of funding due to the many different Government Departments involvement such as Department of Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS), the UK Commission of Employment and Skills (UKCES), the Learning and Skills Council (LSC) and the Skills Funding Agency (SFA). All of which just add to the confusion and a fear of bureaucracy for SME Employers.

2. Is the extra funding promised by the Coalition Government necessary for apprenticeships? How can this funding best be spent?

BCSA- The funding is necessary and at best will benefit those SMEs that that are able to achieve apprenticeships for occupations that can be completed in a short period of time. The technical and craft Apprenticeships take much longer to achieve and the costs associated with the training in much higher. A significant factor to achieving competent employees is the training aligned with the time associated with gaining experience. The earlier stages of this for technical and craft is taken up in training centres and the cost of employing the Apprentice is borne by the employer. SMEs cannot afford to fund individuals when they are not getting any direct return for their employment, therefore the take up of Apprentices is limited to those organisations that are big enough to dedicate their own resources to such training.

The constructional steelwork industry has small numbers of people based all around the UK, this means that their training needs do not attract funding as there is not sufficient volume of candidates and establishing dedicated training centres is not practicable.

This often means the SME may have to fund the apprentice to live away from home during the period of training at the centre and once the training is completed there is always a risk that the candidate will seek employment elsewhere.

Many of the established NVQ courses are now too generic or focussed towards industries that have the larger volumes of employees, the smaller industries cannot get specific relevant courses and often have to settle for ‘something that is close to what they need’ just to get a recognised qualification. This also results in the candidate losing interest in the training as they cannot relate the content of their training to their occupations.

Much more flexibility is needed to ensure the content of the training is relevant and meaningful to the candidate and employer.

3. Are apprenticeships of a high enough quality to benefit apprentices and their employers? Should there be more Level 3 apprenticeships?

BCSA -The technical and craft apprenticeships must to be to Level 3, and the time allocated to gaining experience during the training period needs to be included in the process. Much more flexibility is needed to enable the employer to assess the progress of an apprentice. The current Assessor Qualification is proving to be very restrictive to gaining access to training i.e. training centres are not going to invest/recruit in assessors that are only needed for small numbers of candidates that are spread across the UK.

The craft apprenticeships are also in decline due to the nature of the steelwork fabrication processes that have been developed over the recent years, instead of the traditional plater and welder, we now have the role of ‘fabricator’ (does both plating and welding). In addition to the traditional roles greater reliance in technology and the use of multifunction machines is now common place in the constructional steelwork industry, however no formal training is available for these operators.

4. Apprenticeship bonuses – how should they function? Will they encourage the involvement of more small and medium sized businesses to take on apprentices? If not what will?

BCSA – Unfortunately the use of ‘apprenticeship bonuses’ is not known to BCSA and therefore we are not able to comment!

Apprentice training needs to be industry led and not training provider led, this may give more focus to the specific needs and less on the volume of generic qualifications.

5. Is the current funding arrangement for training of apprentices of 100% for 16-18 year olds and 50% for 19-24 year olds appropriate?

BCSA – The current funding arrangement can result in the selection of an 18 year old being made over a similar candidate that is 19 years old as one attracts 100% funding and the other only 50%. Widening of the bands 16 – 19 year olds would help reduce this and make more opportunities for 19 years olds.

30 January 2012