What is an apprenticeship? And why should we care anyway?

In honour of National Apprenticeship Week 2020, Michael Marshall, Strategic Business Development Officer at London Borough of Camden, shares his thoughts.

Back in the day

There was a time around 3 years ago when apprenticeships were overwhelmingly aimed at young people who were looking to take their first step on the career ladder by getting trained on the job.

They were undoubtedly a great option for many people but only relevant if you were:

1) 16 to 24 years old and looking for work/training

2) looking to recruit raw talent

3) involved in supporting either of these client groups.

If none of the above applied to you then you could easily put apprenticeships to the back of your mind and go about your business, safe in the knowledge that they had no immediate connection to you.

Then everything changed.

The government shakes things up

In April 2017, the government introduced reforms that altered the apprenticeship landscape completely.

The funding mechanism is now different. The apprenticeship levy imposes what is basically a tax on large employers who can then use the levied funds to pay for apprenticeship training. I could explain more but I think the detail would bore you to tears. So when it comes to apprenticeship funding, lets just say, “its complicated!”

Apprenticeships now cover a much broader range of qualifications. In addition to the traditional equivalents to GCSE and A levels, there are now far more higher apprenticeships which offer training all the way up to Masters degrees.

Perhaps the biggest change relates to who can do an apprenticeship. There are no longer restrictions on funding that prevent people over the age of 24 from taking part. People that have a degree or higher qualification are also now included. Anyone with an Education, Health and Care Plan can now get into an apprenticeship without the burden of having to achieve the equivalent of a GCSE in maths and English.

Basically, most people of working age are now able to access an apprenticeship of some sort should they wish to do so. This includes some really useful courses for people already in work, so existing staff in your organisation can now do apprenticeships!

We’re doing things differently now

At Camden Council we’re developing a new approach to apprenticeships in response to the government’s changes.

We’re working with other employers to develop new apprenticeship standards, such as the creation of the Social Worker degree, which is due to start new learners in September 2020, and the Youth Worker degree which is currently in development.

And we’ve been promoting the staff training option. Courses like HR Consultant/Partner and Digital and Technology Solutions Specialist are helping us to address our skills needs through growing the talents of our own staff rather than through external recruitment. Around a third of apprenticeship starts in Camden are now for existing staff.

While we’re keen to create development opportunities for our staff, we haven’t lost sight of the impact our apprenticeships have on our residents. The reforms present a great opportunity (and indeed a responsibility) to create more career pathways than ever before by recruiting people into a broad range of apprenticeships at career entry level. We’ve recruited more level 2 and 3 apprentices each year since the reforms were introduced.

Our newly recruited apprentices are now offered London Living Wage which helps us to make sure the roles represent “good work” opportunities and are inclusive of diverse groups of people. We are particularly proud of work we’ve done to support parents to return to the workplace through an apprenticeship. This is now mainstreamed within our apprenticeship recruitment.

One of our parent returners was invited to speak at the last London Councils apprenticeship awards and gave such an impassioned portrayal of what the opportunity meant to her and her family that it had some of the audience in tears. Moments like that remind us why it’s so important to keep offering these pathways.

We are using all that we do with our apprenticeships within the Council to lead by example and encourage other employers to take a similar approach. We also offer a free apprenticeship recruitment service to help local employers develop their own programmes.

We are not alone in taking a new approach — far from it. I regularly meet with Apprenticeship Leads in other Councils across London so I hear so many good news stories about what is happening in their boroughs. It’s very hard to quantify the impact that apprenticeships have, but you don’t need to do the math to see they have a positive impact on the people taking part and more broadly on society in general.

So what is an apprenticeship now?

In short, it’s structured in-work development that offers a wide range of vocational skills training from GCSE to Masters level.

We all need to move away from the image of an apprentice as a young inexperienced person. It’s just too narrow to fit with today’s definition. They are now for anyone aged 16 and over, that includes all levels of experience, all levels of qualification and potentially all levels of seniority at work. Before you read on, take a look around for a moment and consider this. Pretty much everyone you see has the potential to be an apprentice. Perhaps they already are.

Having said this, we all need to make sure we use this open and inclusive system responsibly by creating more not fewer career entry opportunities, particularly for young or inexperienced people.

This is all very interesting but why should I care?

More and more people that once had nothing to do with apprenticeships are getting on board because they are finding new ways in which they are useful. I can’t pretend apprenticeships are the solution to all staffing/training issues. But I do know that putting in the initial investment to create a well-planned scheme has time and again proven to reap lasting rewards.

You should care about apprenticeships because they now have the potential to benefit you, the staff in your organisation, and so many people in the community in which you work. If you are not sure how then you should look into it.

Interested in doing, offering or creating an apprenticeship based on what I’ve said? Our Apprenticeship service would be happy to talk to you about it— get in touch at apprenticeships@camden.gov.uk. And we’re always keen to share ideas and practice with others in the sector — let’s chat! We’re always looking to push to the next apprenticeship frontier, and will share our thinking as it evolves here — but we’d love to be inspired by your good ideas too!