At last…useful English/maths flex for apprentices with learning difficulties!

“There is a big debate to be had about whether we are actually teaching and training the right things”

I am absolutely delighted to see that the Apprenticeship Funding Rules for 2024/25 have (at long last) accepted that neither Education and Health Care Plans (EHCPs) or Learning Disability Assessments (LDAs) should remain mandatory evidence for those with learning difficulties to access flexibilities to English and maths requirements from a minimum Level 1, to Entry Level 3.

Para 46.1 now accepts that a structured and formal assessment by an “appropriate professional” can be used to evidence a learning difficulty in English or maths that would prevent the individual from completing an apprenticeship. A DfE pilot last year showed that using this model was viable and robust, and enabled many more to complete an apprenticeship tby demonstrating their vocational skills alongside maths and English qualifications at a lower level than the norm.

Whilst all this is very welcome, the DfE have long had it in their gift to take this action much earlier. The Maynard Taskforce in 2016 made the recommendation for such flexibilities which were accepted and implemented, but it became very clear quite quickly that EHCPs often did not specify learning difficulties in English and maths even where they exist, so the apprenticeship rules effectively meant that the flexibilities would not apply. Indeed, an FOI request in 2023 that showed that only 1,420 apprentices had benefited from the flexibilities since their introduction in 2017, whilst the government was aiming for 3m apprenticeship starts in roughly the same period! 

This was a significant area of debate in the SEND community and in 2020 the then-Minister was presented with a potential solution which allowed for wider forms of assessments, only for it to be shelved with the onset of the pandemic, and basically thereafter forgotten about. 

It is of course excellent news that we have finally – FINALLY – reached a place where EHCPs and LDAs are no longer the sole arbiters of whether or not someone has a learning difficulty that would affect their ability to undertake an apprenticeship. But why has it taken around eight years for the DfE to actually respond to a clear issue that the sector has been telling them about and providing solutions for? In the meantime, how many individuals were unable to demonstrate vocational skills to apprenticeship level by the inaction of the DfE in addressing these issues?

Even more fundamentally, if those with learning difficulties using the English and maths flexibilities can attain an apprenticeship of the same vocational value as those who achieved one without flexibilities, why on earth are we asking anybody to complete full English and maths qualifications at all? Surely it would be more appropriate to ensure that apprenticeship standards identify the literacy and numeracy requirements that the role demands and that the provider brings the apprentice to those levels, than get the apprentice to sit an exam with content that sometimes has only a tenuous bearing on their occupation?

The current English and maths requirements therefore compromise a huge number of apprentices who find themselves unable to complete or even start their vocational learning – and not just those with learning difficulties. But as ever, it is the latter group that face yet more barriers to demonstrating their vocational skills base, alongside all the other fights they have to go through just to get recognition or access in many other areas of their lives.

English and maths requirements in apprenticeships urgently need a serious review, because there are serious questions – and always have been – about how literacy and numeracy needs vary between strands of occupational vocational training, and the appropriateness of asking these to be evidenced by passing full GCSEs and Functional Skills Qualifications. Nobody is saying that literacy and numeracy should not be components of apprenticeship training – but there is a big debate to be had about whether we are actually teaching and training the right things to help ALL individuals to excel in the vocational areas they have chosen to pursue.

By Paul Warner, Formerly Director of Strategy at Skills and Education Group