Written Evidence Submitted by Matt Tudor, Director of Strategy & Partnerships, Bridgewater & Taunton College

(NCL0076)

I will take the opportunity to raise two critical points that will allow great colleges up and down the UK to replicate the work we have done for the last ten years at HPC and allow BTC and NCfN to continue to provide an outstanding service to the HPC and all contractors.

Apprenticeship Levy

As you are probably aware, the apprenticeship Levy funding bands, in most cases, were set several years ago and have yet to follow any inflationary costs to allow the provider to continue to deliver an outstanding service. We are now, in many cases struggling to provide any form of financial return from the delivery of levy-funded apprenticeships. It’s important to stress that BTC and NCFN are not-for-profit organisations but must return a small margin to maintain facilities and address growing cost inflation.

This requires careful management as with a complex project like HPC, student numbers can fluctuate and are not always of a sustainable volume; however, as we are so intertwined with HPC and a partner of choice, we tend to make these choices about what is best for the young person and deliver the apprenticeship at a loss.

Apprenticeship Development

Although HPC is fascinating, and BTC/NCfN is delighted to be part of it, we are facing a once- in-a-generation new build where every apprenticeship is brand new, with no existing provision existing elsewhere, as explained to colleagues when we were at HPC that the funding model of training is when students start on the course. There is no funding mechanism to support curriculum development or staffing recruitment upfront to develop material and learning materials. This will be even further exaggerated if we do not capture the learning from HPC in a knowledge exchange phase for Sizewell C etc. Again, there is no mechanism for funding the capture and passing on all the teaching.

Thank you so much for the opportunity to feed in.

(February 2023)