During National Apprenticeship Week, the country, quite rightly, focuses on apprentices and employers, that have benefitted from apprenticeship training.
However, at SDN, we’re working day-in, and day-out supporting apprenticeship practitioners to continuously improve their practice. This is why, for our own National Apprenticeship Week blog, we wanted to reflect on three obstacles that apprenticeship providers have overcome in the past few years and to shine a light on the ‘skills for life’, that practitioners have had to call upon to continue delivering apprenticeships in these turbulent times.
We hope this blog helps you to reflect on your own team’s achievements and perhaps even acknowledge internally how far you’ve moved the dial in recent times…
1 – An exceptional standard of remote learning and training now embedded:
At the start of 2020, who would have predicted there would be lockdowns and social distancing measures in place, meaning apprenticeship providers having to (very quickly!) find new ways to deliver training and support remote learning.
The way the sector innovated and adapted in this time, to continue to support apprentices on programme, was incredible. We heard some amazing stories, including some providers moving to virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) delivery, to give learners the knowledge and skills they need.
Yet perhaps even more importantly, practitioners continue to use their creative skills to embed online learning into the post-pandemic delivery model, making learning flexible for apprentices and allowing employers to schedule off-the-job training around on-the-job work more easily.
2 – Apprenticeship enrolments are starting to recover:
During the pandemic, many workplaces had to close or reduce capacity, which resulted in high levels of apprentice redundancy and fewer new starts than expected.
The government did provide support in 2021, including the £3,000 incentive for employers taking on new apprentices, allowances for apprentices to complete their training even without a secure job and more emphasis on split placements through a new flexi-job apprenticeship agency register.
Yet still it was practitioners at the coalface, doubling down to support learners complete their training in difficult circumstances and amend enrolment procedures to start new apprentices on the right foot.
Now, we are starting to see the signs of recovery. Starts for 2021/22 were 8.6% up on the previous year, and although there is an indication starts are slightly down so far this year, it’s important to remember there is no £3,000 incentive payment. Plus, the appetite for higher and degree apprenticeships seems to be growing strongly (rising by 10% so far in 2022/23 compared to Q1 2021/22).
3 – Adapting to Ofsted’s Education Inspection Framework (EIF)
OK, so the EIF has been in place since 2019, but after a disrupted two years, we’ve only really started to have Ofsted inspections back in full force recently, with a far higher number of apprenticeship providers being inspected.
77% of inspected apprenticeship providers last year achieved either a ‘good’ or ‘outstanding’ grade, or at least ‘reasonable progress’ at a new provider monitoring visit. While this is down 4 percentage points from 2021, considering the volume of inspection last year, in comparison, it indicated most providers have done well to keep the quality high over the pandemic period.
Likewise, looking at SDN’s own events programme last year, we can see there is an appetite from practitioners to continue to develop new ways of working and share best practice when it comes to Ofsted. Our enrolments on Quality workshops and webinars were extremely high and the insight and can-do attitude from providers is as strong as it’s every been.
In summary
So yes, apprenticeship week should be about apprentices and employers, but considering the challenges providers have had to overcome, it’s only right to also recognise the skills, creativity and dedication of staff working in the apprenticeship space that make all of it happen. We take our hats off to you!
What next?
If you want to continue to develop your skillset and thinking when it comes to apprenticeship delivery in 2023, SDN is here for you. We have a full online webinar and workshop programme for practitioners and can bring in industry experts to deliver bespoke support to your team when needed.
To see our current webinars and workshops, visit: www.strategicdevelopmentnetwork.co.uk.events
Alternatively, contact us at hello@strategicdevelopmentnetwork.co.uk if you have more bespoke requirements.