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Employers are worried about new rules on the number of hours that apprentices must spend being taught
While schools and universities have been stung by recent budget cuts, vocational learning has fared somewhat better. Since the coalition government came to power last May, there has been sustained investment in apprenticeships, starting with £250m to fund 75,000 new adult apprenticeships, announced in the 2010 spending review.
In last week's budget, the chancellor, George Osborne, announced a £180m package for a further 50,000 apprenticeships, aimed at helping young people into work or training. While the investment is welcomed by colleges and training providers, they now face the challenge of finding employers to take on all these new apprentices. But convincing employers, particularly those in small- and medium-sized businesses, to invest their time and money in training has never been easy.
New government regulations, due to come into force next month, could make it even tougher. The Specification of Apprenticeship Standards for England (Sase) will require every apprentice to receive up to 280 hours of guided learning (time in education and training, away from their usual duties) each year.
Some employers are worried. Jonathan Morcom, operations director at the Duke of Cornwall hotel in Plymouth, is one. The hotel sends its apprentices to City College Plymouth for one day a week. Squeezing in more training time wouldn't be practical, he says. "It's important apprentices have time offsite with a learning provider, but 280 hours is excessive. Smaller employers, especially, will not be able to justify having their apprentices out of the workplace for that amount of time."
Grahame Howe, head of employer engagement at West Nottinghamshire College thinks this "one size fits all" approach will not work for apprenticeships. "While some sectors, like engineering, might require a lot of hours doing theoretical work in the classroom, others, such as some parts of the service industries, will need much less. We work with a big leisure company that is very good at training its staff away from the work environment. But even they are telling us they will find it difficult to arrange 100 hours of off-the-job training."
City of Sunderland College principal Angela O'Donoghue thinks setting a minimum number of guided learning hours is important for 16- to 19-year-olds, but feels placing the same expectations on adult apprentices is a mistake. "Young people need that support, that time to develop and grow, but for adults who may already have been in the workplace, is it really necessary? It's difficult enough for us to persuade employers to take on adult apprentices. Those who do it want a full-time employee not a four-day-a-week person. I'm worried this will make our job even harder."
But Chris Kirk, head of apprenticeships at City & Guilds, thinks fears about guided learning hours could be down to semantics. Some of the government documentation for Sase uses the phrase "off the job" to describe guided learning, which may have been misleading. A more accurate phrase might have been "away from your workstation", he argues. "The problem is that these government documents are often written by educationists with theoretical knowledge, but no hands-on experience of working in the sector. When you drill down into the guidance, only 30% of the 280 hours have to be spent away from everyday duties."
But he can understand why small- and medium-sized employers are worried. "We work with lots of big supermarkets that have their own training departments, so guided learning can be done inhouse with minimal impact. But in a smaller outfit, you can easily see how a couple of hours with travel time could easily turn into a day, which could impact on the business."
The Department for Business, Innovation and Skills (BIS) has now clarified what it means by guided learning as "traditional classroom learning; e-learning; distance learning; coaching; mentoring; feedback; collaborative/networked learning with peers; guided study; planning and review". This must offer access "as and when required" for the learner either to a tutor, mentor, supervisor or manager.
A BIS spokesperson says: "The new specification of apprenticeship standards will enshrine and enhance the quality of the apprenticeships programme, guaranteeing a minimum allocation of 280 hours of guided learning to equip every apprentice with the specific skills employers need."
But Paul Warner, director of delivery at the Association of Learning Providers, feels there is still potential for confusion. "If an electrician goes out on a job with his boss which throws up the opportunity to try out a new technique or concept, can this be called guided learning?" While supportive of the government's attempt to introduce a quality benchmark, he believes a minimum number of guided learning hours could simply be introducing an unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
Traditionally, sector skills councils (employer-led organisations responsible for developing skills and standards in different sectors) have set the minimum number of hours necessary to complete a particular apprenticeship (many of which exceed 280 hours anyway), which are used by awarding bodies when they design qualifications.
If colleges and training providers also have to provide evidence they have met the standards, it could mean doubling up on paperwork, says Warner. "Providers may well end up spending extra money on administration – money that could be better directed at the learner." He highlights another potential sticking point. Under the new rules, guided learning hours have to be completed within contracted working hours, which could be particularly problematic for apprentices in customer-facing sectors. The trainee chef who gets to work early to practise a new technique, or the hairdressing apprentice who wants to take part in a training session when the salon is closed to the public, may find their efforts cannot be counted as guided learning.
The new standards have been introduced in response to the Apprenticeships, Skills, Learning and Children Act, which was set in motion by the previous Labour government but came into force last September. Despite the 18-month build-up, getting through red tape means many sector skills councils and awarding bodies do not yet have everything in place for April, when the new standards are introduced.
Terry Watts, chief executive of Proskills, the sector skills council for process manufacturing, says many employers feel as if the changes have been rushed through at the last minute without any real consideration of "how things might work on the shop-floor".
Charlie Mullins, director of Pimlico Plumbers, agrees: "On paper it's a positive move back to the way things used to be; the way they should be if we're going to tackle the UK's skills shortage. The problem we face, of course, is that it's great to fund all these 'new apprenticeships', but each and every one of them requires a job so the apprentice can put in their hours while they're training and that's where things come unstuck."
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