Apprenticeships

APP 115

Written evidence submitted by the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL)

1. ATL – leading education union

ATL, as a leading education union, recognises the link between education policy and our members’ conditions of employment. Our evidence-based policy making enables us to campaign and negotiate from a position of strength. We champion good practice and achieve better working lives for our members.

We help our members, as their careers develop, through first-rate research, advice, information and legal support. Our 160,000 members – teachers, lecturers, headteachers and support staff – are empowered to get active locally and nationally. We are affiliated to the TUC, and work with government and employers through partnership and by lobbying.

2. ATL Policy

ATL’s education policy is underpinned by the professionalism of teachers. Teachers should be recognised for their knowledge, expertise and judgement, at the level of the individual pupil and in articulating the role of education in promoting social justice. Development of the education system should take place at a local level: the curriculum should be developed in partnership with local stakeholders and assessment should be carried out through local professional networks. Schools should work collaboratively to provide excellent teaching and learning with a broad and balanced curriculum, and to support pupils’ well-being, across a local area. This means that mechanisms must be developed that ensure a proper balance of accountability to national government and the local community, and which supports collaboration rather than competition.

3. Executive summary

· ATL welcomes the opportunity to submit written evidence to the BIS Committee Apprenticeships Inquiry.

· A TL welcomes the establishment of the external review into the standards and quality of apprenticeships, which will report in 2012. This is timely, given the current disparity across apprenticeship programmes.

· ATL is concerned that there are huge discrepancies in the quality of programmes offered. There should be a minimum one year duration for any apprenticeship programme

· ATL agrees with the analysis that an understanding of why apprenticeships work is crucial to the development of the programme. ATL recommends that the lessons of research be taken up and applied to the range of apprenticeship offers. We agree with those who see the European model as offering a more rigorous framework for the apprenticeship programme, particularly the German system which provides high quality technical qualifications with general education.

· ATL believes that there should be a clear distinction between real apprenticeship programme s and work based learning opportunities that may lead to an apprenticeship , as the current variation in offer and subsequently in quality, damages the apprenticeship brand.

4. Range of apprenticeships

Education for all is at the heart of ATL’s policy principles and it is therefore a concern to us that the current apprenticeship programme lacks consistency and does not provide a coherent or clearly articulated system. Because of the variety of apprenticeship models, there are huge discrepancies in the quality of programmes offered. Currently apprenticeship programmes can range in duration from 8 weeks to 4 years. The introduction of a robust and coherent programme for young people which introduces them to the occupation and leads to a licence to practice is long overdue.

The current number of possible permutations of the framework, with over 180 different career choices on offer in 80 different sectors, does not provide a clear message to young people, parents and school or college staff. Good quality information, advice and guidance are crucial in this respect.

Provisional figures show that apprenticeships starts for 2010/11 rose to 442,700, however, of these there were only an additional 11,700 places created for 16-18 year olds at a time when youth unemployment stands at 1.027 million, with 22.3% of the 16-24 age group unemployed. Government claims that apprenticeship places have been increased across the sector for all age groups, but the majority increase is in the number of apprenticeships for the over 25s.

5. Successful apprenticeships

There are successful apprenticeship programmes that work and are rightly given as exemplars to young people and adults, however the reasons for their success is not obvious. The tradition of an apprenticeship system appears to be crucial to successful programmes as is the understanding of the employees who work with the apprentices and the ethos of the company. Such conditions are ideal and are given the name ‘expansive’ (as distinct from ‘restricted’) apprenticeships by Professor Lorna Unwin at the Institute of Education . They provide exemplary programmes of apprenticeships. It is also of note that the UK improvement in the Worldskills competition drew on the notion of an expansive workplace that encouraged the development of team skills and team working.

In expansive app rentices hips the dual status of learner and e mployee is clearly established and there is a tradition of apprenticeships, whereas in restrictive apprenticeships, the status of the apprentice as employee dominates and there is little or no tradition of apprenticeships within the workplace . The domination of tradition in the apprenticeship programme is beneficial in regards to its status and to the learning and training conditions it provides. Non traditional sectors that do not have ‘communities of practice’ consequently suffer a greater variation of quality and status; f or example, the dominance of Construction, Hairdressing, Business Administration and Customer Care, the former having a highly casualised workforce and others being non-traditional occupational sectors, shows that there is a tendency towards more restrictive apprenticeships. This will affect the aspirations of the young people who join them.

Without a clear notion of an expansive apprenticeship and thereby a kite mark of quality, the apprenticeship brand will suffer. It is also probable that non-traditional sectors providing ap prenticeship programmes may fail to follow an inclusive agenda and so have a tendency to select trainees by gender or age.

ATL agrees with the analysis that an understanding of why apprenticeships work is crucial to the development of the programme. ATL recommends that the lessons of research be taken up and applied to the range of apprenticeship offers. To this end, SSCs could apply criteria which establish whether or not the apprenticeship meets the requirements of an expansive apprenticeship programme. The restrictive apprenticeships which are focussed on a narrow conception of training should be identified as work based learning opportunities that may lead in future to an apprenticeship award via an ‘expansive’ programme.

6. C onclusion

A review of apprenticeships should take account of and build on the learner experience pre-apprenticeship. BIS and DfE should work together as they review qualifications from school to work, to ensure a seamless transition.

ATL wholeheartedly supports the Government intention to raise the status of the apprenticeship programme and its commitment to making apprenticeships the gold standard option for young people. However, this cannot succeed when it is still unclear whether this is a skills policy or a re-employment policy. In order to establish both the credibility and quality of apprenticeship programmes, more places must be made available to the 16-24 age group and the apprenticeship brand must be consistently applied across all programmes.

10 February 2012