Apprenticeships, genuine or not?

I shall restrict my response to apprenticeships within the electrotechnical sector. 

Twenty years ago I taught part-time on a fairly well controlled apprenticeship scheme which required the young person with appropriate O-level grades to secure a job with an electrical contractor. Once those key elements were met, the facilitating organisation, placed the candidate with a local college, monitored the candidate through the three year period both in work and in college and provided access to the AM2. No cost was levied to any participant and circa £9K of government funding was divided fairly between the contractor, the college and the facilitator. The scheme was far from perfect but it did provide excellent outcomes with high NVQ L3 achievement and very low drop-out rates. I have since tutored many of my erstwhile apprentices on current 7671 and inspection and testing courses. I am delighted that they have done well in our industry.

However, things seem to be different now. That scheme has since been replaced and colleges can cast a fine mesh net to recruit candidates who have below average academic ability. That in itself is not necessarily an impediment to progress but when the young person can’t get on to his first choice course of painting and decorating and is pressed into a technical career path then it is clear they will likely struggle. To add insult, the young person is brought to Level 2 through a purely college-based system which provides little in the way of practical experience and then discarded unless they can find an electrical contractor willing to take them on.

The nature of electrical contracting has change dramatically with many established firms becoming nothing more than management teams tendering for work on the finest of margins. There is no room for nursemaiding and thus the opportunity for a placement for the apprentice is becoming increasingly slim. 

Fixing it? Well there is a clear case for government policy on procurement being honed to ensure that organisations tendering for public works have well-defined apprenticeship strategies in place. I accept that is easier said than done!

I shall restrict my response to apprenticeships within the electrotechnical sector. 

Twenty years ago I taught part-time on a fairly well controlled apprenticeship scheme which required the young person with appropriate O-level grades to secure a job with an electrical contractor. Once those key elements were met, the facilitating organisation, placed the candidate with a local college, monitored the candidate through the three year period both in work and in college and provided access to the AM2. No cost was levied to any participant and circa £9K of government funding was divided fairly between the contractor, the college and the facilitator. The scheme was far from perfect but it did provide excellent outcomes with high NVQ L3 achievement and very low drop-out rates. I have since tutored many of my erstwhile apprentices on current 7671 and inspection and testing courses. I am delighted that they have done well in our industry.

However, things seem to be different now. That scheme has since been replaced and colleges can cast a fine mesh net to recruit candidates who have below average academic ability. That in itself is not necessarily an impediment to progress but when the young person can’t get on to his first choice course of painting and decorating and is pressed into a technical career path then it is clear they will likely struggle. To add insult, the young person is brought to Level 2 through a purely college-based system which provides little in the way of practical experience and then discarded unless they can find an electrical contractor willing to take them on.

The nature of electrical contracting has change dramatically with many established firms becoming nothing more than management teams tendering for work on the finest of margins. There is no room for nursemaiding and thus the opportunity for a placement for the apprentice is becoming increasingly slim. 

Fixing it? Well there is a clear case for government policy on procurement being honed to ensure that organisations tendering for public works have well-defined apprenticeship strategies in place. I accept that is easier said than done!