Jennifer Coupland, chief executive of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (the Institute), explains why apprenticeships and T Levels are a great option as the nation emerges from the shadow of Covid-19.
Covid-19 has been massively disruptive for everyone. I would certainly say that the last year and a half has been the most challenging and unpredictable period in my working life.
Thankfully, there are now encouraging signs that the vaccine is working and we can start to focus on the national recovery. We must of course be cautious and stay focused on keeping everyone as safe as possible, but it is exciting to consider the opportunities to refresh and regenerate.
The rollout of new apprenticeships did not stop during the pandemic. Around 80 have been launched since March last year and over 600 are now available in total to recovering businesses and anyone thinking about where to go next with their careers.
The first point to make to people looking to take on apprentices is that it’s important to look beyond apprenticeships tailored for an organisation’s core area of work. They can fill skills gaps right across the business. For example, they cover IT support, legal, finance and accounting, marketing, business and administration.
There is also a huge variety of apprenticeships serving specific sectors such as construction, catering and hospitality, digital, creative and design, and education and childcare.
Now turning to people of all ages who may want to train or retrain themselves, there has never been a better time to do an apprenticeship.
They cover a far broader variety of jobs than ever before and can support you to progress from GCSE-equivalent entry-level right up to degree level.
Apprenticeships still cover all the traditional trades like plumbing, bricklaying, and electricians, but have broadened out to everything from training teachers and police officers, to solicitors, accountants, investment bankers, and architects.
Degree apprenticeships have caught the public’s imagination. They work for people who prefer the idea of earning as they learn, rather than studying full-time, and offer the added advantages of completing with significant work experience and without debt, as apprentices don’t have to pay tuition fees.
A good example of a sector that has felt the benefits of apprenticeships during the pandemic is healthcare. This national crisis has highlighted more than ever the need to train skilled people across the National Health Service. Apprentices have also supported COVID-19 testing and vaccine development.
More than 70 apprenticeships are available in these fields, including for nurses, midwives, radiographers, pharmacy technicians, and also laboratory scientists.
We’re also fully behind the UK’s target to achieve net-zero carbon emissions by 2050.
We know that skills will play a major part in the green-led recovery. The government is planning to create and support 2 million good quality, green jobs by 2030.
The Institute recently set up a new green apprenticeships advisory panel (GAAP) to ensure that apprenticeships support all the emerging skills needs.
The green economy is going to be a massive growth area, so there will no doubt be more training programmes needed as technologies evolve. Apprenticeships that currently serve the green economy include arborists, who plant, fell and maintain trees, environmental practitioners, who apply environmental expertise across businesses, and ecologists, who study relationships between plants, animals, people, and their environment.
Looking at diversity, the share of apprentices from black and minority ethnic backgrounds across all apprenticeships has risen gradually and currently stands at around 14 per cent. That broadly reflects the population figures across the country, but we are determined to do more.
While the overall proportion of women on apprenticeships remains at around 50%, we also want to address the balance for STEM occupations.
We are launching a major scheme this summer to support more people from all backgrounds onto apprenticeships and know that employers want apprenticeships to increase diversity in their workforces.
Apprenticeships can also support social mobility. There are for example now apprenticeships in law and accountancy and not having a degree should no longer be a barrier to entry to these professions. Employers are increasingly happy to accept people with A-Levels onto their apprenticeships and support them to gain a qualification alongside work.
There are, of course, other quality training options out there including exciting new T Levels. These are more classroom-based courses that follow GCSEs and will be equivalent to 3 A Levels. Like apprenticeships, these have been developed with employers so the training is relevant and meets industry skills needs. They also offer students first-class ‘on-the-job’ experience during industry placements of around 45 days for students aged 16 – 19.
The first T Levels launched last September covered digital, construction, and education and childcare. We are going live with the second wave this autumn. They will also cover health and science.
There’s plenty of support out there for anyone who wants to do further research about training options. The Institute’s website and gov.uk are full of useful information. The National Apprenticeship Service also provides wide-ranging advice and support.
There will no doubt be more challenges in store as we emerge together from this awful pandemic, but there is now good cause for optimism. Apprenticeships and T Levels are well placed to support thousands of businesses and people along that road to recovery.
