UVAC Strategic Priorities for 2024-2027 sets out a bold, unapologetic agenda for ensuring higher and degree apprenticeships remain at the heart of England’s skills strategy.
This recently published document lists three key headline strategic priorities for UVAC and its members in terms of apprenticeships and skills policy:
Higher and Degree Apprenticeships including policy, quality and regulation
Higher and degree apprenticeships are here to stay. The strong demand for higher and degree apprenticeships is coming from employers and individuals, which makes the Government’s moves against level 7 provision even more extraordinary. Higher level apprenticeships are the fastest area of growth in terms of starts, accounts for an increasingly large proportion of apprenticeship spend and withstood a number of economic shocks suffered by other levels of apprenticeship provision in previous years. UVAC will continue to work on behalf of members to challenge the extent of requirements to meet performance standards given that 85 percent of members are good or outstanding following Ofsted inspection and very few register for DfE intervention based on the Apprenticeship Accountability Framework (AAF) measures of quality. Funding bands have also not kept pace with growing economic costs or inflationary pressures and needs to be urgently addressed.
Protecting level 7 higher and degree apprenticeships
UVAC is disappointed that the Labour Government has failed, very early on, to recognise how the current apprenticeships system enables individuals who did not have, or who missed the opportunity at a younger age, to train for a higher-paid career or follow a route to a registered profession. It is clear likely that the announcement affecting the scale of level 7 investment by employers is in part reflective of the rhetoric that has been critical of management apprenticeships. The caricature of the investment banker, or well-paid FTSE executive using levy funds to pay for an MBA has, even very recently, featured in the debate on apprenticeships despite the master’s degree removal from funding in 2020. The reality has, however, always been different. Around 60% of senior leader apprenticeships are undertaken in the public sector, with the NHS being the biggest recruiter. In reality, too little attention is paid in skills policy to the fundamental importance of developing management skills and raising management performance or, indeed, how improvements in management skills would have the most impact on raising productivity and public sector efficiency. UVAC will work with DfE and Skills England to ensure proper consideration is given to what is and isn’t fundable by the levy and support members to respond to shifts in policy.
Social Mobility, Diversity and the Delivery of Public Sector Services
Government expects, and HEIs will need to develop and deliver, provision that enhances social mobility, tackles underrepresentation and encourages diversity. UVAC stresses the importance of support for the delivery of high-quality public sector services. Degree apprenticeship already deliver well for the public sector, particularly in addressing the long-term workforce challenges in the NHS. These arguments need to be amplified and maintained. Investing more in training in the public sector increases productivity and results in better public service delivery for monies invested by Government. From a social mobility perspective, Government should want a focus on opening progression routes to the professions and to higher paid occupations. Supporting individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds and under-served communities into entry-level roles can help with social mobility but it is a first step. Government should be far more ambitious and will need a focus on social mobility and progression into higher level associate professional and professional level job roles.
The strategy doesn’t shy away from addressing tough challenges.
It calls for more flexible learning models, better alignment between universities and employers, and a focus on green skills to support the net-zero economy. Equally, UVAC challenges outdated narratives that prioritise low-level skills at the expense of a comprehensive approach to upskilling the entire workforce, regardless of age or background.
