As various economic crises rock the UK, ensuring that our apprenticeship systems can support the changing economy, labour market, and learner aspirations is vital. This autumn, Edge and Skills Development Scotland (SDS) are partnering to deliver three workshops exploring this issue. Uniting policymakers, academics, employers, learners and other system stakeholders from across the UK’s four nations, our aim is to determine the attributes of an optimal apprenticeship system. More than that, though, we want to explore the tangible actions, opportunities and skills policies required to help realise a solution that will deliver for all.
Our first workshop, which took place on 14th September, was a broad-based exploration of current trends impacting the labour market, businesses and individuals. What do these groups and the broader apprenticeship system need to remain agile and resilient in the face of a changing world? Before exploring this question in breakout groups, we welcomed insights from the National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) and the Learning and Work Institute (LWI).
The growing value of meta-skills
NFER offered thinking from the latest research, outlining the core drivers behind the UK economy’s main growth areas. Demand for digital and human skills, they explained, is currently at the forefront of skills development. In short, in the face of technological advances, it is not purely technical skills that employers seek. They also require analytical, creative and interpersonal skills, self-management and emotional intelligence.
While there is some push to develop these skills in younger learners, NFER highlighted less evidence of initiatives to upskill the existing workforce. Considering that 80% of the 2035 workforce is already working, this is concerning. Are we providing workers with appropriate skills development opportunities? NFER believes we need an urgent, government-coordinated approach to this rising challenge. This will undoubtedly involve exploring the role of apprenticeships and the broader education system.
We must properly target skills development
The LWI offered their perspective on how the changing economic landscape will impact various regions differently. For instance, the transition to net zero will be especially vital in Scotland, which currently has many high-carbon emitting industries. As such, workers here will require different specialist skills than those in regions dealing with other economic pressure points. Therefore, the apprenticeship system must appropriately target learners with the right skills, depending on both their area of expertise and their geography.
The LWI also shared data suggesting that new skills development is largely adopted by wealthier individuals and those already qualified to a higher level. While there is theoretical recognition of the need to target skills development across all levels and regions, this mismatches reality, which is a poor focus on upskilling those without higher qualifications. Finally, the LWI raised an issue underpinning all these factors: training spend. UK employers' overall training costs are half the EU average, raising questions over the quality of our skills provision.
Opportunities for our apprenticeship systems
Our breakout sessions unpicked the issues facing apprenticeships while also identifying opportunities for improvement. One common theme amongst employers, for example, was the need for a system that is agile enough to respond to rapid changes in the socioeconomic environment. Employers were clear that they wanted the flexibility to be able to change and adapt their business models and have greater agency around apprenticeship learning plans. This aligns with the reality that employers are shifting away from a focus on qualifications to other methods of assessing individual for jobs.
For employees, meanwhile, flexibility meant being able to adapt what they're doing. An obvious opportunity would be to exploit the transferability of meta-skills and fusion skills, which treat things like communication, creative thinking and organisation as interrelated entities. Since these apply to (and are transferable between) all sorts of jobs, they should be at the heart of apprenticeship design.
A suggestion to help both employers and individual learners was to improve the provision of skills specialisations. We could supplement broader apprenticeship training with shorter, sharper courses. These could offer so-called ‘micro-credentials’ that better reflect the changing nature of work in the 21st century. Furthermore, by extending these micro-credentials to the core employability skills often overlooked by formal qualifications, we could vastly improve evidence of prior learning and overall learner confidence. Of course, enabling this requires clear funding for lifelong learning.
While implementing these ideas would require some careful planning, there was also mention of some ‘quick wins’—things more achievable in the short term. One prime example was the idea of replacing the apprenticeship levy (which has been accused of attracting perverse incentives) with a skills investment levy.