4 Engaging apprentices—Preparing
for apprenticeships
Preparing for work—Vocational training or
academic learning?
61. A recurring theme of our inquiry
has been how to strike the balance between academic and vocational
training in the advice given to students at schools and colleges.
We were told that there could be a stigma attached to a student
actively choosing vocational training (such as an apprenticeship).
One apprentice from Sheffield, Luke Shaw, told us that:
I went to a sixth form to do my
A-Levels, and the minute I said, "I want to do an apprenticeship,"
they turned their nose up. I didn't even get invited to the awards
ceremony.[96]
Another apprentice, Chris Parkin, told
us that, in his experience, colleges did not have the knowledge
or resources to properly advise any student who did not want to
go to university:
I found that when I approached my
college when I did my A-Levels and said, "I want to do something
else other than university," the amount of literature and
help available was limited.[97]
62. Visa Europe agreed, and told
us that teachers were too focused on the Universities and Colleges
Admissions Service (UCAS). It recommended that equal emphasis
be placed on vocational and academic 'admissions':
A more prominent service, which
forms as much a part of the school year as UCAS entries, would
encourage teachers to give equal consideration to vocational and
higher education, and by raising the profile of apprenticeships
help businesses to access pupils who might otherwise never consider
a vocational path.[98]
63. We heard similar evidence from
industry representatives. For example the Strategic Adviser to
the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), Rt.Hon. Richard
Caborn, warned us of the elitism which existed among those advocating
different career routes:
There are those who believe that
entrance into the world of higher education ought to be by academic
qualifications, not by going through an apprenticeship. Does that
devalue the degree or the chartered engineer? I do not think it
does. If you are talking about engineers being elitist, you ought
to talk to some of them in higher education. You will find there
is a lot more elitism there than down here on the shop floor.[99]
City and Guilds also argued that careers
advice within schools and colleges needed to be improved:
We accept that teachers cannot be
expected to be experts in all areas of the curriculum and that
the notion of 'impartial' careers advice and guidance may be difficult
to achieve. To add balance, we need to ensure that there are a
coherent set of guidelines and trained advisors are available
to provide the support young people and their teachers require
so that there are fewer 'dead-ends' and resources are more efficiently
distributed across different pathways.[100]
64. We were encouraged, therefore,
when the Headmaster of Northampton School for Boys, Mike Griffiths,
told us that at his school all routes to employment were celebrated.[101]
Even he believed, however, that there was a wider problem of perception
and attitude when it came to advising on vocational or academic
training:
As a country where we fall down
is that there is not parity of esteem. As long as we think of
these things as layers rather than as parallel routes through,
we are always going to have this problem. I get really annoyed
when the basic underlying assumption is that you do vocational
training or a vocational course if you are incapable of doing
an academic one.[102]
65. The Minister agreed that the
perception of apprenticeships was that they were somehow inferior
to academic education, despite the importance of vocational training
to our economy:
There is a cultural misassumption
[...] the idea that only through academic accomplishment can people
gain prowess is entirely specious. It is absolutely the case that
the economy needs practical, vocational, technical skills, and
that many people's aptitudes lie in that direction and they can
achieve fulfilment through the acquisition of those skills, but
we are challenging a prevailing cultural assumption that I think
has been around for most of the post-war years.[103]
The Minister told us that he had addressed
this by making it law for apprenticeships to be a specifically
mentioned in careers advice. He explained that in the Education
Act 2011:
The responsible authorities, by
which we mean schools and colleges, must secure careers guidance
in an impartial manner, which includes—and I quote—"information
and options available in respect of 16-18 education or training,
including apprenticeships". We have put in law that those
who provide careers advice and guidance must include apprenticeships
in the options which they offer to people.[104]
66. However, a cultural problem
such as this cannot be solved through legislation alone. The Association
of Colleges (AoC) told us that, despite the Education Act 2011,
vocational training awareness was disturbingly low:
As a flagship Government policy,
apprenticeships must be effectively promoted as a good route for
young people. The general lack of awareness and understanding
of apprenticeships is a serious issue. A recent AoC survey found
that only 7% of pupils are able to name apprenticeships as a post-GCSE
option compared with 63% of young people who are able to name
A-Levels. We fear that changes in school-level careers advice,
included in the Education Act 2011, will do little to improve
this situation.[105]
67. A change in social attitudes,
not just law, is required. We are concerned that tomorrow's workforce
are at best under-informed, and at worst being misled in the advice
they receive about future career development. We were shocked
to hear that a very successful apprentice was apparently ostracised
by his college because he was told "it
looked bad" on the college's statistics.[106]
68. During our inquiry we saw
a number of excellent apprenticeships schemes run by business.
However, despite the fact that many apprenticeships lead on to
degree courses, they are not always promoted in schools as an
equally viable route to a career as 'A' levels and university.
Furthermore, these routes are often intertwined with students
moving between the two. This may be because schools are measured,
primarily, by 'A' level attainment and the number of university
places gained by each academic year which forces teachers to concentrate
on the academic route. This needs to be changed. We therefore
recommend that alongside the number of university places gained
in an academic year, schools should also be required to publish
the number of apprenticeship starts.
69. We acknowledge that the inclusion
of apprenticeships in careers advice is legislated for in the
Education Act 2011, but we have found that awareness and resources
in schools and colleges remains lacking. We recommend that the
Department for Education does more to assist schools in the promotion
of vocational training in the curriculum (for example by providing
literature, training to teachers and information for careers advisors).
It should also ensure that any changes to the secondary curriculum
will put proper emphasis and value on pupils taking a vocational
route in their careers. The time and resources that institutions
dedicate to 'UCAS applications' compared to preparing students
for vocational training illustrates the scale of the problem.
Success will be measured when schools and colleges place vocational
and academic progression on an equal standing in terms of the
both the level and quality of resources.
Pre-apprenticeships—NAS and schools
70. NAS is tasked with "responsibility
for promoting Apprenticeships and their value to employers, learners
and the country as a whole".[107]
We supposed, therefore, that it would have allocated considerable
resources towards raising learner awareness in schools and colleges.
However, we heard that this has not been the case and that NAS
had failed to exploit the opportunity to work more closely with
schools. For example, the National Union of Students (NUS) told
us:
NUS was hopeful that the creation
of the National Apprenticeship Service would give rise to parity
of experience for apprentices. We are concerned however that the
levels of learner engagement within this service are inadequate.
NUS believes that the National Apprenticeship
Service should adopt a more systematised approach towards learner
and stakeholder engagement.[108]
71. The Association of Employment
and Learning Providers (AELP) agreed that NAS should increase
learner engagement by working more in schools:
NAS can play a particularly valuable
role in schools, explaining to young people, their teachers and
parents that Apprenticeships offer a high quality vocational training
that will suit many young people better than the traditional academic
route after the age of 16. This is particularly important at a
time when careers guidance is being dismantled and there is a
real fear amongst providers that schools will not be able to fulfil
their duty to make pupils aware of all the options available,
including Apprenticeships, except in a very superficial way.[109]
72. When we raised this with the
Chief executive of NAS, David Way, he told us that "the statutory
responsibility rests with school heads".[110]
While this may be a correct reading of the law, it further strengthens
our earlier conclusion that this problem cannot be solved through
legislation alone. When we asked Mr Way what resources NAS had
dedicated to learner engagement, he responded:
It is relatively small in relation
to, say, the work we do with employers. The primary responsibility
for this rests with the schools themselves, so we try to be responsive
to schools rather than go into schools.[111]
He summarised that "it is a support
rather than lead role, but it is very important".[112]
73. NAS subsequently submitted further
information on work that their Central Division (East Midlands,
West Midlands and Central Eastern areas) had undertaken to support
schools:
The Ambassador Networks believed
that the lack of access to good quality information, advice and
guidance was the key barrier to the effective growth of Apprenticeships
and considered that young people were being poorly served in this
regard.
Early feedback from schools and
employers alike was that using employers and their apprentices
(preferably ex-pupils of the school) was one of the best ways
to inspire school students to consider post 16 or 18 options including,
considering new sectors for employment. In response to this feedback
we are in the process of creating and populating a sustainable
database with every secondary school in the area linked to a provider
(Further Education or Work Based Learning) and an Apprentice Ambassador/former
Apprentice.
Work has already started in a number
of schools with Ambassadors supporting open evenings, careers
events and classroom presentations; this has been particularly
welcomed in promoting some sectors including Science, Technology,
Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) subject areas where young people
can sometimes fail to understand how such subjects can be extremely
valuable to local employers especially in the advanced manufacturing
sector.[113]
74. Given the widely held view
that NAS should have more involvement with learners through schools,
we were disappointed by the Chief Executive's apparent lack of
enthusiasm, citing the Education Act 2011 and telling us that
NAS was not statutorily responsible. The National Apprenticeship
Service should be a familiar name, known to all students and teachers
as an authoritative source of information about apprenticeships.
We recommend that NAS is given statutory responsibility for raising
awareness of apprenticeships for students within schools. This
should include some quantifiable measure of success with which
to gauge the student awareness of apprenticeships.
Equality, diversity and accessibility
75. During the course of this inquiry
we were presented with evidence that the apprenticeship scheme
may be perpetuating some inequalities seen in the wider economy.
The Trades Union Congress told us of some specific diversity failings
in the apprenticeship scheme:
Gender segregation remains a huge
problem with only 3 per cent of engineering apprentices accounted
for by female participants compared to 92 per cent of hairdressing
apprentices. This is one of the reasons for an overall gender
pay gap of 21 per cent, but even within the same sector women
are being paid less: for example 61 per cent of apprentices in
the retail sector are female but they are paid 16 per cent less
than male retail apprentices.
Black and minority ethnic (BME)
communities also face huge barriers. For example, while 18-24
year-olds from BME communities account for 14 per cent of this
age group in the overall population, they account for less than
8 per cent of apprenticeship places.
Disabled people face similar barriers,
with trends suggesting a worsening of the situation. Access to
apprenticeships for people declaring a learning difficulty and/or
disability has fallen from 11.5 per cent in 2005/06 to 8.2 per
cent in 2010/11.[114]
76. Such inequality, especially
in a publically funded scheme is not acceptable and combating
barriers to entry should be a key priority. It is no less important
that the scheme considers the wider socioeconomic and political
concerns of the country (for example youth unemployment). We have
heard from some witnesses, for example Centrepoint, who told us
that the apprenticeship scheme is at risk of excluding certain
members of society not typically considered to be under-represented:
While improving quality is rightly
a central aspiration for the government, this should not come
at the expense of accessibility. Particularly in light of the
crisis of youth unemployment, and the raising of the participation
age, apprenticeship provision must become a viable option for
young people who are NEET, or at risk of becoming NEET and studying
at a low level.[115]
77. We were encouraged when the
Department confirmed that NAS is currently conducting research
into this topic, and already considered raising diversity as a
priority. The Department told us that:
The National Apprenticeship Service
has responsibility for delivering the Apprenticeships programme,
and increasing the numbers and diversity of Apprenticeship applicants
is a priority.[116]
We remain concerned that "numbers
and diversity" are two different (and potentially competing)
issues. The Department went on to confirm that NAS "is currently
exploring new ways to promote access and success for under-represented
groups".[117]
78. It would seem that these explorations
have had some effect on public opinion. The Times newspaper reported
on this issue, giving the example of a "pilot scheme, co-funded
by the National Apprenticeship Service and the Skills Funding
Agency to attract more men into the care sector". The apprenticeship
programme should be a beacon of best practice for the industry.
Having said that, recent statistics demonstrate that there is
more to be done. The same article concluded that "as a result
[of the lack of diversity], businesses are missing out on a huge
pool of talented, hard-working people".[118]
79. The apprenticeship scheme has
been reported to contain inequalities, specifically around sex,
ethnicity and disability. These issues are not necessarily specific
to the apprenticeship scheme. More analysis is needed to fully
understand the impact of the perceived lack of diversity within
the apprenticeship scheme and its relationship with inequalities
in the wider economy. We will maintain in our programme of work
our commitment to tackling these issues as our inquiries uncover
them.
80. While we were encouraged
to hear that the National Apprenticeship Service does take diversity
into account, the statistics show that it remains a significant
problem. We welcome the work conducted by NAS into diversity,
and recommend that it is given specific responsibility and accountability
to raise awareness of apprenticeships among under-represented
groups. This should include a responsibility to promote the advantages
of diversity directly to employers. We believe that the apprenticeship
programme should be an inspiration and beacon of best practice
to the wider economy, demonstrating the advantages of greater
diversity at all levels of industry.
96 Q191 Back
97
Q 192 Back
98
Ev w305 Back
99
Q 105 Back
100
Ev w82 Back
101
Q 254 Back
102
Q 254 Back
103
Q 707 Back
104
Q 706 Back
105
Ev 169 Back
106
Q 191 Back
107
National Apprenticeship Service website, History of Apprenticeships
[accessed 1 July 2012] Back
108
Ev w228 Back
109
Ev 157 Back
110
Q 583 Back
111
Q 584 Back
112
Q 585 Back
113
Ev 224 Back
114
Ev 210 Back
115
Ev w61 Back
116
Ev 146 Back
117
Ev 146 Back
118
The Times, Apprenticeship special, Under-represented groups
are a loss to employers, 16 May 2012 Back
|
