The government’s is to begin a consultation with employers over giving them the financial control to design apprenticeships. The consultation will be open to all interested parties and examine the way apprenticeship funding is distributed.
Three possible models for apprenticeship funding are to be discussed. A ‘direct payment model’ would pay employers as soon as they register apprentices. A ‘PAYE payment model’, would pay companies funding an apprentice on receipt of a PAYE return. The final model, known as ‘provider payment’, would retain the current system of funding external training providers but they would only receive funds when employers were happy with training and had made their contribution.
The consultation follows in the wake of the Richard Review in Apprenticeships published last year, which highlighted inefficiency and abuse in the current system.
The new move has been welcomed by Scott Fletcher, founder and chairman of UK cloud infrastructure specialist ANS Group, who said: “The quality of apprenticeships is a particularly poignant issue in the high-tech business sector. There is no way that a local college can keep pace with the speed of change. More involvement from employers in developing apprenticeships is essential.
ANS has announced details of its own apprenticeship academy that is part of the government’s ‘Employer Ownership of Skill Pilot’ and will train up to 50 ‘cloud apprentices’ every year.
The ‘Employer Ownership of Skill Pilot’ invites employers to develop any proposal that teaches skills, creates employment or drives economic growth.
“A lot of companies are now starting to grasp the nettle and it’s resulting in a lot of innovation – on our apprenticeship scheme there is hardly any classroom time, for example, it’s mostly on the job,” said Fletcher.
He also said that there were plans for an ANS apprenticeship academy that in the future would accept candidates sponsored by other IT businesses. And he added that they were looking at plans for an ANS sponsored apprenticeship academy in the future would accept candidates from other digital businesses.
“We have found that apprentices display a greater loyalty to the companies which have trained them and are less likely than graduates to move on and work for your business rivals,” he said.