As of 1 April the new National Apprenticeship Service (NAS) quietly went live, taking on the end-to-end responsibility for achieving the Government’s objectives for Apprenticeships. The central objective is to make Apprenticeships a mainstream option for young people, with the target that 1 in 5 young people will be in an Apprenticeship by 2020.
The National Apprenticeship Service is a new organisation with a national team and regional field-force, which will sit within the Skills Funding Agency when this is established in place of the Learning and Skills Council in 2010. The national and regional teams are divided across three main service areas and corresponding objectives:
Whilst the national team will take the strategic lead on Apprenticeships (with a national policy and business development team), the regional teams will have a pro-active role in engaging directly with employers and learners. They will also work with existing intermediaries already promoting and delivering Apprenticeships in the regions. This is a considerably different service to that provided by the LSC, which the NAS will initially sit within. NAS’s role is to provide a field-force to effectively ‘sell’ Apprenticeships to employers and learners directly, rather than manage this through funding and commissioning.
Although NAS is positioned as the lead organisation for driving forward Apprenticeships, there are considerable complexities in its governance structure and the way it will interact with other organisations. The positioning and remit of NAS does not go as far as the recommendations of the House of Lords Select Committee, which envisioned a strong cross-departmental statutory body. NAS therefore has to fit within, rather than over, existing infrastructure and organisations creating additional layers of infrastructure and potentially adding to confusion and complexity.
For instance, this complexity is demonstrated in the funding of Apprenticeships. The Skills Funding Agency (SFA) will manage the funding of Apprenticeships for those aged 16 or over on behalf of NAS. The funding streams for Apprenticeships will come from a variety of sources; the SFA (on behalf of NAS) will channel funding for Apprenticeships from both the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (for learners aged 16+) and the Department for Children, Schools and Families (for learners aged 16-19), whilst the Young People’s Learning Agency will fund young Apprenticeships for those aged 14-16. In addition, Local Authorities will have the responsibility for estimating Apprenticeship numbers, and feeding this into the SFA.
The NAS will also sit alongside existing organisations already involved in promoting and delivering Apprenticeships. For instance, the regional NAS teams will need to work closely with those delivering information, advice and guidance to potential learners, and also with those engaging with businesses around their skills needs. This involves organisations as wide ranging as Connexions, Jobcentre Plus, Business Link, the National Employer Service and training providers.
To ensure a seamless journey for learners and employers engaging with Apprenticeships through any route, it will be vital to ensure that NAS integrates and works strongly with these partners. NAS therefore needs to present a clear message around its service offer and how it will integrate with existing partners’ services. This requires NAS to develop frameworks for partnership working at a national level, whilst encouraging regional teams to build strong operational partnerships with regional leads on the ground. NAS has started this by developing national ways-of-working agreements with partners such as Business Link, National Employer Service, Connexions and Jobcentre Plus. CFE is supporting in particular the development of the NAS protocol with Regional Development Agencies on behalf of their operational arm Business Link.
Despite the complexities outlined, the existence of an organisation dedicated solely to promoting Apprenticeships does highlight their significance as a means of upskilling both young people and adults to meet the skills needs essential for the UK to compete in a global economy. United with the appeal of Alan Sugar and his search to find his own ‘apprentice’, Apprenticeships are certainly back in the public eye. To live up to the expectations raised by this increased profile, NAS will need to ensure that the multi-agency complexities remain firmly behind the scenes, and that it is able to deliver a seamless service to employers and learners engaging with Apprenticeships.