Apprenticeships in the UK are enjoying a current period of popularity, however, more needs to be done before they are treated like academic qualifications, argues Lawrence Barton in FE News.
A recent report by education think tank EDSK found that employers and universities have been mislabelling training courses as ‘apprenticeships’ as they compete to use up the funding raised by the apprenticeship levy.
The report called ‘Runaway training’ shows that these ‘fake apprenticeships’ have accounted for 50 per cent of all the courses started since the levy was introduced in 2017, and £1.2 billion of apprenticeship funding has already been committed by the government to deliver these courses.
“While there is a case for rebranding higher level apprenticeships, the suggestion that the term ‘apprenticeship’ should be restricted exclusively to those qualifications at Level 3 is short-sighted.” Lawrence Barton
The report identifies a wide range of ‘fake apprenticeships’ that have been created in recent years. Employers have used up over £550 million of levy funding on rebadged management training and professional development courses for more experienced employees.
As a result, the most popular ‘apprenticeship’ in the country is now becoming a ‘Team Leader / Supervisor’ – accounting for almost 1 in 10 apprentices.
The report concludes that a new approach to the apprenticeship levy is needed to make it financially sustainable as well as deliver world-class technical education in England.
