Energy & Utility Skills

Summary of Impact on Apprenticeships

Regarding Apprenticeship Development the Government will:

• Work with Sector Skills Councils and the UK Commission to ensure Apprenticeship frameworks offer high-quality, economically-relevant provision.
• Ask Sector Skills Councils to work together to ensure that Apprenticeships are developed that cut across sectoral boundaries.
• Ask Sector Skills Councils to ensure that Apprenticeships reflect changing demands for higher entry points for many careers.
• Continue to look to Sector Skills Councils to ensure that Apprenticeships and national occupational standards are updated to meet the needs of employers and employees in the face of new market conditions and increasing competition.
• Ensure there are clear routes from Apprenticeships to higher level training including, but not exclusively, Level 4 Apprenticeships.
• Reshape Apprenticeships so that technician level - level 3 becomes the level to which learners and employers aspire. In most sectors, an individual will not be considered to have finished their Apprenticeship journey until they have reached this level because the economy increasingly needs more people with intermediate and higher level skills.

Regarding Apprenticeship Delivery the Government will:

• Welcome the support of larger companies that train more Apprentices than they need in the expectation that they will find jobs with the smaller businesses in their supply chain. The Government recognises that smaller firms have been discouraged by the administration and the costs and risks of employing Apprentices. Group Training Associations help spread these costs and risks and create new jobs and training opportunities allowing smaller businesses to offer training opportunities to Apprentices.

Regarding Apprenticeship Funding the Government will:

• Raise the budget for adult (19+) Apprenticeships by 50% (up to £250m) increasing the numbers of adult Apprenticeships available by up to 75,000 by 2014-15.
• Fund (through the NAS)18 Apprenticeship Diversity Pilots over the next 12 months designed to test out different methods for improving access to Apprenticeships for under-represented sections of society. These pilots will directly lead to approximately 5,000 opportunities.
• Encourage a wider set of industries and professional bodies to consider where the introduction of clear professional standards will benefit an industry and its competitiveness. The Government believes that in some sectors there is a continuing role for formal licensing or standards based requirements in industries and occupations where there is a clear consumer protection or other public interest. The Government will welcome proposals that demonstrate the role that Apprenticeships can play in providing a key route for progression in an occupation.

To Raise the Profile of Apprenticeships the Government will:

• Build on the established prestige of the Apprenticeship brand and celebrate achievement at each level of the Apprenticeship system.
• Work with the National Apprenticeship Service to introduce graduation ceremonies, an Apprentice Roll of Honour and new alumni networks.
• Consider how Apprenticeship training is recognised as conferring "technician" status in appropriate sectors.

Opportunities for the Sector

• Up to £250m additional funding for Apprentices over 19. For a range of reasons including legislation, health and safety maturity and driving, many employers are reluctant to employer Apprentices aged 16-18. Additional funding for the 19+ age group will support an expansion of Apprenticeships in the sector.
• Apprenticeship Diversity pilots - the sector has a gender imbalance in most technical roles at levels 2 and 3 and these pilots could enable us to showcase the exciting range of occupational roles for male and female Apprentices.
• Group Training Associations - especially as a mechanism to engage SME.

Risks to the Sector

• Government map cease to recognise the skills gaps at level 2 occupational roles and Apprentices are no longer deemed to have completed unless they progress to level 3.
• Significant confusion is caused if the term "technician" is introduced to the sector with a meaning contradictory to the currently recognised status linked to particular occupational roles and professional recognition.

Facts Highlighted in a recent survey:

• 93% of Apprentices stated they had improved job prospects
• 80% of Apprentices said they had had a wage increase
• 90% of Apprentices had remained in employment immediately after their Apprenticeships had ended

Research demonstrates that:

• A level 3 Apprenticeship is estimated to earn the individual an additional £105,000 more than someone with a level 2 qualification over their lifetime.
• A level 2 Apprenticeship is estimated to earn the individual an additional £73,000 more than someone with solely a level 2 qualification over their lifetime.
• In the majority of sectors, employers recoup their investment in an average of 2 or 3 years.
• Other benefits that Apprenticeships bring to employers include reduced staff turnover, the new ideas and innovation that Apprentices bring and a supply of skilled labour that is often not available through the external job market.