04 Dec 2003
Modern Apprenticeships - BAE Systems has over 1000
CRAC Conference
Thursday 4th December 2003
Mike Turner
Good morning, ladies and gentlemen.
I am pleased to be here today and I would like to thank the Careers and Research Advisory Centre for the opportunity to speak to you.
Sir Roy Gardner, who is leading the National Modern Apprenticeship Task Force, unfortunately can’t be with us. However, as a member of the Task Force, I appreciate the invitation to speak to you about what we’re doing to support Modern Apprenticeships.
The Modern Apprenticeship Scheme is a key strand of the Governments strategy to build our skills base in this country. As the Prime Minister said last month at the CBI Conference in Birmingham, there are now over 200,000 young people on the Scheme – a tenfold increase on the number in 1996.
The January 2003 White Paper targets that by the end of 2004, 28% of youngsters under the age of 22 will be on apprenticeship programmes.
I’m personally vocal about the need to preserve and develop skills as a national asset and also the importance of retaining a strong industrial base in the UK. In the case of my own Company, BAE Systems, the importance of sustaining a high technology UK aerospace and defence industry.
BAE Systems has for many years had a very strong association with education and training. In the UK we currently have over 1,000 apprentices with an annual intake of around 250. On top of this, in Airbus UK, which is 20% owned by BAE Systems, there are currently around 500 apprenticeships.
In addition, our Schools Network programme has over 1,500 schools across the country registered with it. This gives schools access engineering and science projects in which these schools can take part. We also play a very active role in the Government’s Specialist Schools programme.
We are proud that one of our apprentices in Lancashire, Grace Johnstone, has just won the UK Young Woman Engineer of the Year Award.
Like Grace, I also began my working life as an apprentice in the aerospace industry at HSA Ltd in Manchester - I’m sorry to say, a little before the word “modern” came along.
For Grace and me it was not because we had a career master plan – it was purely about getting paid whilst we continued our education. In those days I received £10 a week from HSA to go to college rather than £5 a week grant from the Government. For me that was the kind of incentive that made a difference.
My colleagues on the Task Force know that one thing I bang on about is the need to engage more employers in the Modern Apprenticeship scheme.
The Scheme needs to be relevant. Relevant to the needs of both companies and young people. We must be able to satisfy the demand among young people for good quality placements.
The way we on the Task Force intend to make this happen is through listening and learning from all the players before deciding how we and the Government can help.
During my talk I will explain who sits on the National Modern Apprenticeship Task Force and what we are seeking to do.
We are engaged in consultations with employers, providers, apprentices and other key stakeholders and made visits to Modern Apprenticeship schemes and the Learning Skills Council.
I will give you an indication of the key issues which the Task Force has picked up so far.
I will also touch on specific issues being raised by large employers, as I am personally leading a Task Force sub group on this – the Large Employers Working Group.
In fact as we all know identifying the issues and ideas is the relatively easy part. Doing something about them is the real challenge. However, I’m pleased to say there was no shortage of good ideas from those we have spoken to. I will share some of these with you.
First, the Task Force itself. How did it come about and who is on it?
In February this year The Chancellor of the Exchequer asked Sir Roy Gardner to put together a Task Force with one of its key objectives being to generate more employer engagement.
We operate by being a critical friend of the key players who are currently delivering Modern Apprenticeships.
The Task Force comprises senior executives from blue chip companies, representatives from small and medium sized enterprises, the Public Sector, other key stakeholders like the TUC, the CBI and IoD and, of course, all the agencies involved in Modern Apprenticeship delivery.
What are our key objectives?
The first is to generate more employer engagement and, in so doing, to support the Learning and Skills Council in achieving the Government’s Modern Apprenticeship target of 175,000 first time entrants under the age of 22 by July 2005.
We need much more employer engagement, not only amongst large employers but also with small and medium sized enterprises.
Also needed is a wider participation of some industry sectors, such as health and retail.
We need to understand and tackle the issues surrounding design and delivery of the Modern Apprenticeships scheme. Delivery needs to work for both employers and young people.
We’re not working in isolation, other associated initiatives will help. A colleague on the Task Force, David Sherlock, Chief Inspector of the Adult Learning Inspectorate, highlights the need for the Task Force to work in tandem with the proposals being prepared by the Working Group on 14-19 year old Education Reform (the ‘Tomlinson Committee’).
Our Task Force work plan is based on delivering Sir Roy’s report on a forward strategy to the Chancellor, the Secretary of State for Education and Skills and the Learning Skills Council Chairman in the spring of next year.
What have we found out so far?
I’ll start with who is responsible and how Modern Apprenticeships are currently delivered. It is a complicated system. There is the Learning Skills Council, Apprenticeship Frameworks, Colleges of Further
Education, Awarding Bodies, training providers, off-the-job training, on-the-job training and many more. They appear not to be sufficiently joined up in their thinking, objectives and actions.
Employers are telling us that the Modern Apprenticeship delivery mechanism is unduly complex.
We have some radical ideas being suggested, like creating a one-stop shop for employers and merging some of the bodies. However, we are still learning and we haven’t yet come to any conclusions. All suggestions are still very much welcome.
Flexibility is another issue.
Employers often complain about the scheme’s lack of flexibility, whether it’s to do with key skills or accrediting in-house training for a Modern Apprenticeship framework. Quite simply, employers want a scheme that fits their needs.
The new Sector Skills Councils need to take a lead on this. Maybe it should be explicit as part of their license obligations to increase employer engagement and ensure Modern Apprenticeship frameworks are fit for purpose?
There is also an issue about how much Modern Apprenticeships are valued. It is clear that a Modern Apprenticeship does not yet have the same sense of value or esteem as other post-16 educational routes. However, the fact is many employers and providers are offering very good training and career prospects. This is not as well recognised as it should be.
Again, this is an area where we must create more joined up thinking in marketing and communicating the benefits of modern apprenticeship. The Learning Skills Council has to join forces with key partners in education and industry to improve perception. The recent launch of the Council’s Modern Apprentice of the Year Award is a good example of the way forward.
Another issue is that completion rates of schemes are too low. In 2001-2002 only 24% of those on programmes were completing them.
The Learning Skills Council has promised us more detail on this issue and it’s too early to say what the solution could be. Perhaps completion rates are not the right measure of success and we have to look at other quality indicators such as good career moves. We are also thinking whether or not employers and training providers should be further incentivised to complete frameworks. If a 90% completion rate is achieved then maybe this should be rewarded with more funding than an employer or provider who has 20% completion rates.
Small and medium sized enterprises employ some 60% of the workforce in this country but are not really engaged enough in the Modern Apprenticeship process. It can be complicated and onerous for them especially as they don’t always have large training or Human Resources departments.
Large companies can help with this. For example, at BAE Systems our Human Resources provider, a company called Xchanging, recruits and trains 50 apprentices a year for our supply chain. This is over and above the 250 it brings in and trains for BAE Systems itself and they benefit from the same courses and facilities.
At present the funding for Modern Apprenticeships stops after the 25th birthday. However, a number of successful pilots with mature apprenticeships have been visited by the Task Force, and clearly quite a few employers and employees would welcome a raising of the age cap to at least 30, especially in certain sectors, such as hospitality.
Today people do change careers and jobs more than ever before.
Some employers are also concerned that the Modern Apprentices are not exempted from the planned introduction of a National Minimum Wage for 16-18 year olds this could reduce the number of places made available by employers. Large employers who train Modern Apprentices on behalf of small and medium sized enterprises in their industry are especially concerned.
The case for this should be studied further and the government needs to be sensitive to the arguments.
There are some very good in-house training schemes for which employers don’t get the recognition they deserve.
We are pleased that the Learning Skills Council has recently started pilots in the ‘Approved Employer Scheme’ which funds in-house training to the required Modern Apprenticeship standard. My Large Employers Working Group is working with the National Contracts Service of the Learning and Skills Council to bring more big employers into the fold and increase the number of Approved Employer Schemes.
The Key Skills element of Modern Apprenticeship training is a big issue for employers and providers.
A number of providers have difficulty with delivering Key Skills properly. They do not always have the specialist staff and sometimes have to contract out Key Skills delivery. Providers also say it often takes far longer to train apprentices than expected and that funding is not adequate.
However, the delivery of Key Skills is essential and the recent White Paper aims to give providers more support. I am also pleased to say that there are pilots taking place looking at on-demand and on-line testing of key skills.
Some employers and providers also feel the current external examination element of the Key Skills award does not work well although it is only 5% of the assessment.
The feeling is that all Key Skills training should be fully integrated into vocational training with the Key Skills award being portfolio based. If there is going to be external testing this should be realised through the Technical Certificate.
Another area that the Task Force is considering is the example that could be set by the public sector encouraging greater employer involvement.
The Government could make more stringent demands on its contractors through its procurement policies.
I hope I’ve given you some insight into some of the big issues, our Task Force time scale for addressing them, and creating a powerful platform for the future success of Modern Apprenticeship Schemes.
We now need to be questioning and listening and industry has to play a full part. It is a strong pull from us that will make Modern Apprenticeships meaningful, and as I already know in BAE SYSTEMS, properly constructed apprenticeships make business sense.
Effective marketing is crucial. We can all help to dispel wrong perceptions.
The Modern Apprenticeship scheme is a key strand of the Government’s skills strategy. The Government is intent on delivering practical solutions to the issues we identify. As the Minister, Charles Clarke said, he is ‘keen to move from a position where his department was putting policy into practice to one where they were putting practice into policy’.
This is what we in the Task Force are determined to deliver, thereby bringing benefits to both apprentices and UK industry
Thank you
