Written evidence submitted by the National Foundation for Educational Research
Introduction
1 The National Foundation for Educational Research (NFER) welcomes the opportunity to submit written evidence to the Education Committee’s New Inquiry: Apprenticeships and Traineeships for 16 to 19 year olds. In doing this, we are pleased to contribute to thinking in this priority policy area which seeks to enable and support young people to make successful transitions from education to employment. In addressing two of the points specified in the invitation document, this submission draws on available evidence including key publications from NFER’s Research Programme and education-to-employment portfolio: http://www.nfer.ac.uk/research-programme/
Executive summary
2 Improving the supply of apprenticeships and traineeships is central to the Government’s drive to reform skills training provision and boost the UK’s economic competitiveness. The reforms include increasing the volume and quality through employer-led apprenticeships and creating traineeships to improve young people’s employability skills.
3 The demand for apprenticeships is increasing. There has been a steady increase in the number of people aged 19 and over taking up apprenticeships. The increase in the number of young people aged under 19 taking them up has been less steep. A minority of pupils (up to five percent) take up apprenticeships after completing their education at key stage 4 or key stage 5.
4 The main factors that prevent more young people considering apprenticeships are lack of young people’s, teachers’, career advisers’ and parents’ awareness and understanding of what they are, who they are appropriate for, how to get one and how apprenticeships can contribute to a career pathway. A majority of teachers do not feel they have enough knowledge to give advice. A cultural change in attitudes towards vocational education and apprenticeships is needed.
5 Young people’s lack of access to good careers advice means that they are not aware of the range of training and jobs available, especially more vocational routes to employment and careers. Young people find out about apprenticeships mainly by doing their own online searches and from suggestions from family and friends.
6 These barriers could be overcome in three ways: by ensuring that the provision of careers advice in schools and colleges is inclusive, independent and impartial; by enhancing the professional development of teachers, especially careers teachers, so that they are sufficiently briefed to provide informed and impartial careers advice on vocational as well as academic routes; and by deploying apprentice ambassadors who can go into schools and colleges and explain what an apprenticeship entails.
7 Government could encourage more young people to consider apprenticeships and traineeships by raising their profile as a route to employment and a career pathway. This would include the apprenticeship trailblazers and sector skills councils identifying innovative and effective ways of promoting the range of apprenticeships and traineeships in their industries and sectors and use these to inform young people of the benefits of these training routes. Their promotional and recruitment campaigns should use a range of media including national and local television and radio and social media.
8 The Deputy Prime Minister’s plan (announced in April 2014) to set up a UCAS-style, one-stop online shop for vocational opportunities should be implemented with urgency. This would provide a coordinated information service on college courses, apprenticeships and traineeships.
9 The Government should commission a quantitative study of the relative cost effectiveness of different ways of providing careers advice for young people and how this should be targeted.
10 The Government should support the development of more higher-level apprenticeships which would provide a career option for those young people who prefer taking a more vocational and applied route to degree-level learning, training and qualifications. This would help to raise the status of apprenticeships and motivate some young people to take them up.
Policy background
11 The Government is reforming the skills system to equip individuals and businesses with the skills they need to compete effectively in global markets. Rigour and Responsiveness in Skills (DfE and BIS, 2013) set out the reforms which include reshaping apprenticeships, developing meaningful qualifications and creating traineeships for young people aged 16 to 24 who are motivated to get a job but not work-ready. Following the Richard Review (2012), the Future of Apprenticeships in England: Implementation Plan (HM Government, 2013) introduced new trailblazer, employer-led apprenticeships.
Evidence from research
12 Key national statistics relating to the participation of the 16-19 age group in apprenticeships show how pertinent the New Inquiry is: there were 186,400 participants in 2009-10, increasing to 203,100 in 2010-11 and then declining to 189,600 in 2011-12. In contrast, the number of participants aged over 19 increased in the same timeframe from 491,300 to 806,500 (Skills Funding Agency and Business, Innovation and Skills FE data library: apprenticeships. Updated 3rd April, 2014 https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/fe-data-library-apprenticeships--2). A total of 3,300 young people aged 16 to 24 years old have started traineeships since they were launched in August 2013 (DfE and BIS (2014), Framework for delivery).
13 Destinations data reveals that five percent of pupils from state-funded mainstream schools in England went to an apprenticeship the year after key stage 4 in 2011-12, the same percentage recorded for 2010-11. The comparable figure for pupils entering an apprenticeship after key stage 5 was four per cent in 2011-12 up from three percent in 2010-11 (DfE, 2014a). The Review of Education – The Wolf Report (2011) noted the challenge in increasing the number of young people taking Apprenticeships: ‘… major efforts should be made to provide greater access to the workplace for 16-18 year olds. Apprenticeship offers great opportunities to young people, and this government is, like its predecessor, committed to increasing apprenticeship numbers. However current trends underline the difficulty of doing so rapidly for those under 19’ (p.12).
We address two of the issues listed in the Education Committee’s call for evidence.
What factors prevent more young people considering apprenticeships and how these could be overcome
14 The main barrier to more young people considering and taking up apprenticeships is lack of young people’s, teachers’, career advisers’ and parents’ awareness and understanding of what they are, how to get one and how apprenticeships can be a career pathway. Research conducted for the recent Higher Ambitions Summit (Nash, 2014) found that more than half (55 per cent) of young people aged 11 to 16 surveyed indicated that they would be interested in an apprenticeship rather than going to university if it was available in a job they wanted to do. However, only 31 per cent said that their teachers have ever discussed the idea of apprenticeships with them at school (p. 6). Research by the Boston Consulting Group (2013) reported that 80 per cent of teachers surveyed claim they do not have enough knowledge to give advice and about half admit they have given poor advice. Furthermore, 57 per cent of teachers said that they feel pressured into advising students to stay at school post-16 in order to gain funding, even though more appropriate options may be available elsewhere, such as in a further education college or an apprenticeship scheme.
15 A review of research on apprenticeships by the Institute for Employment Research (2013) reported that: ‘One of the key issues often highlighted by employers and training providers about the lack of interest in Apprenticeships from many school leavers, particularly those with high academic achievements in school, is the influence of parents and teachers and their attitudes to vocational routes along with the relatively incomplete information being available through careers advice and guidance at school in relation to all available post-16 options’ (p. 8).
16 There is substantial evidence that young people have limited access to good careers advice. Ofsted (2013) reported that careers provision in its school survey was ‘not sufficiently well coordinated or reviewed to ensure that each student received appropriate guidance … The information students received about careers was too narrow. Too many students were unaware of the wide range of occupations and careers that they might consider’ (p.4). A recent education and skills survey by CBI (2014) found that 80 per cent of businesses across the UK ‘feel the quality of careers advice young people receive is not good enough to help them make informed decisions about future career options’ (p.63). These findings are corroborated by a survey of apprentices by the Industry Apprentice Council (2014) which found that only around a quarter (24 per cent) rated their school’s or college’s provision of careers information and guidance as good or very good. Similar results were reported by the Boston Consulting Group (2013) who observed that: ‘Because of the complexity of vocational education in England, students need expert and impartial advice, but very little is available to them’ (p. 21).
17 The Ofsted (2013) report noted that the schools provide unbalanced careers guidance which favours access to university: ‘Schools did not work well enough with employers to provide their students with direct experience of the world of work, which would help to broaden students’ minds about possible future employment. Vocational training and apprenticeships were rarely promoted effectively, especially in schools with sixth forms. The A-level route to universities remained the ‘gold standard’ for young people, their parents and teachers’ (p. 4). A key finding from Ofsted (2013) was that staff and students had a limited understanding of apprenticeships: ‘Many senior staff and careers guidance professionals interviewed were not well-informed about apprenticeships. Nearly all the students interviewed had a very narrow view of apprenticeships; the most common idea was that ‘you had to choose just one job and stay in it for the rest of your career’’ (p. 21).
18 Lack of apprenticeship-related careers advice was also identified by the Industry Apprentice Council (2014) survey of apprentices: less than nine per cent of respondents said that they had found out about their apprenticeship through either their teacher or careers adviser and six per cent had found out from careers fairs or the National Apprenticeship Service. The main ways that young people found out about apprenticeships was by doing online searches and from suggestions from family and friends. Research on apprentices undertaken by Vivian et al. (2012) found that the two main sources of advice were the employer with which they did an apprenticeship and the training provider or college providing the apprenticeship. Only a small minority (six per cent) of apprentices reported that a formal careers advice service, including JobCentre Plus, was the most influential source of advice.
19 These barriers could be overcome by having a drive to change attitudes towards vocational education in three ways. First, the careers education, advice and guidance provided in schools and colleges should be inclusive, covering both vocational and academic routes, so that young people are provided with information on a wide range of career routes including apprenticeships.
20 Second, teachers, especially careers teachers, require professional development so that they are sufficiently briefed to provide informed and impartial careers advice on vocational as well as academic routes. In their research on young people’s decision making, Marson-Smith et al. (2009) concluded that ‘… support needs to come from informed adults – not only guidance professionals but also those with particular insights into the content and nature of the qualification that they will be studying, such as college or training provider staff’ (p.13). Schools and colleges can use their own links to source employers who offer apprenticeships to brief staff on the type of learning involved in apprenticeships and the type of jobs to which apprentices can progress. The Education and Employers Taskforce (2014) runs Inspiring the Future which connects state schools and colleges with employers and people from the world of work. Teachers can access volunteers at no cost and invite them to visit and speak about their job and the type of industry they work in, including the range of careers on offer and training provided. The National Apprenticeship Service could also help to brief teachers and tutors by raising its profile with schools and colleges and providing customised information on apprenticeships and traineeships.
21 Third, we suggest deploying apprentice ambassadors who can go into schools and colleges and explain what an apprenticeship entails including the type of work and training involved. Young people are likely to value receiving an insider view from their near-contemporaries. The Industry Apprentice Council (2014) states that: ‘The evidence also shows that apprentices are the best people to promote apprenticeships, as the vast majority of family, friends and colleagues thought more highly of apprenticeships based on their experiences, with many inspired to take up an apprenticeship themselves’ (p. 8).
How the Government could encourage more young people to consider apprenticeships and traineeships
22 The Government could encourage more young people to consider taking up apprenticeships and traineeships by further developing system infrastructure and capacity to facilitate their decision making. Strengthened information, advice and guidance (IAG) services should be a priority as the Institute for Employment Research concluded: ‘Appropriate IAG should enhance the attractiveness of Apprenticeships to young people as it would provide them with not only awareness of the options available to them but also to the potential returns afforded to Apprenticeships’ (p.44). The recently-published good-practice brief on careers engagement by the Association of School and College Leaders, Association of Teachers and Lecturers, NFER and 157 Group (2014) is a useful guide which identifies the principles of effective careers education, information, advice and guidance and the actions that schools and colleges should take to ensure that their provision is of high quality. An NFER Thinks paper (McCrone, 2013) called on the Government, careers professionals, schools and employers to work together to find an effective and workable solution to improving the quality and consistency of careers guidance for all young people.
23 Encouraging more young people to consider apprenticeships and traineeships involves raising their profile as a route to employment and a career pathway. As Vivian et al. (2012) report, there is a positive story to tell: ‘Overall satisfaction with Apprenticeships is high. Almost nine in ten apprentices (89%) were satisfied (gave an overall satisfaction rating of at least six out of ten) and 71% very satisfied (at least eight out of ten). As many as three in ten apprentices (30%) gave a satisfaction rating of ten out of ten. The proportion satisfied rose to 92% amongst completers’ (p. 9). The same study also found that: ‘Learners generally viewed their Apprenticeship as having a strongly positive impact on their skills and abilities, both those which were specific to their chosen career and those which were transferable between careers’ (p. 11).
24 The Government should supplement National Apprenticeship Week, which celebrates apprenticeship talent, skills and achievements and promotes all apprenticeship levels and progression routes including traineeships, with additional approaches to reach young people. It should require the apprenticeship trailblazers and sector skills councils to identify innovative and effective ways of promoting the range of apprenticeships and traineeships in their industries and sectors and use these to inform young people of the benefits of these training routes. Their promotional and recruitment campaigns should use a range of media to convey the benefits and outline the practicalities of apprenticeships and traineeships including national and local television and radio and social media. Case studies of young people’s testimonies of apprenticeships and traineeships, where they describe their first-hand experience of the training provided, what they have achieved and the impact on their careers can be powerful communication tools.
25 The Deputy Prime Minister’s plan (announced in April 2014) to set up a UCAS-style, one-stop online shop for vocational opportunities should be implemented with urgency. This would provide a coordinated information service for young people on college courses, apprenticeships and traineeships. NFER’s guide to developing an online 14-19 prospectus of learning opportunities (Blenkinsop, 2006) is relevant. Research on the Young Apprenticeship Programme by NFER (Golden et al., 2010) reported the ‘importance of ensuring that young people are provided with sufficient information, advice and guidance to ensure that they make an informed choice that is right for them …’(p. 23).
26 Whilst some sources make the case for more personalised, one-to-one provision of careers advice for young people under 19 (The House of Commons Work and Pensions Committee (2012), Wade et al. (2011) and McCrone et al. (2012)), there is a lack of evidence regarding the relative effectiveness of the different ways of providing careers advice such as advice online, over the phone or face-to-face. Therefore, we recommend that the Government commission a quantitative study into the relative cost effectiveness of different types of careers advice provision delivery and how these should be targeted at young people.
27 The final suggestion is for the development of more higher-level apprenticeships which would provide a career option for those young people who prefer taking a more vocational and applied route to degree-level learning, training and qualifications. This would help to raise the status of apprenticeships and motivate some young people to take them up.
August 2014
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