Turning the QAR Tide: A Provider’s Perspective

The recent government release on apprenticeship achievement rates serves as a crucial reminder of the journey many providers undertake to improve their Qualification Achievement Rates (QAR). For institutions like us at York St John University, which found itself “at risk” in 2022/23, this latest data release offers both a benchmark and a reflection of the rigorous, collaborative work required to make meaningful QAR improvements. This journey, which we embarked on with a commitment to quality, has emphasised the significance of early intervention and understanding the key metrics that directly impact QAR, including the relationship between QAR and QRR, and their integration into governance and management discussions.

Acknowledging the Challenges

We began by facing a sobering reality. Our apprenticeship QAR in 2023 was way below the national average, which had a substantial effect on both our immediate performance and long-term positioning. The QAR became the focal point of our improvement strategy, driving us to reassess not just our outputs but the overall system that underpinned apprenticeship success. We realised that the journey to improving QAR required more than just focusing on the outcomes; it required a comprehensive approach to embed quality throughout the apprenticeship experience.

A key part of this strategy was ensuring that key metrics, such as QAR, were understood at all levels of provision, from tutors to managers, and were discussed at every governance and management meeting. We recognised that early Tri-partite meetings (including the apprentice, employer, and institution) played a critical role in setting the foundation for success. These early conversations established clear expectations for all parties involved and ensured alignment on goals. This early focus on accountability, expectations, and support has had a lasting effect on engagement and retention rates.

Embedding Early Tri-partites and Ensuring Metric Understanding

A significant reform in our approach was the enhancement of the onboarding process, beginning with Tri-partite Zero, where we set expectations with apprentices and their employers from the outset, before the learning start date threshold has been crossed. This early meeting is now pivotal in creating a shared understanding of the responsibilities and goals and ensuring all parties understood their roles in the apprenticeship journey. It wasn’t just about the apprentice’s academic performance; it was about ensuring that employers were aligned with the process, with clear insights into how their involvement directly influenced both the academic achievement and the QAR.

Furthermore, embedding the understanding of QAR as a metric was essential throughout our organisation. We ensured that this metric was not just a tool for compliance teams but was integrated into all layers of the provision. Management meetings regularly discussed QAR and its relationship with the Qualification Retention Rate (QRR), highlighting how both metrics were interconnected. Leaders across the university were made aware of how their actions, from onboarding to non-engegament engagement, impacted these metrics, fostering a culture of shared responsibility for performance.

Strengthening Employer Engagement and Aligning EPA with Degree Outcomes

A critical challenge in our improvement strategy was ensuring that apprentices understood the dual nature of their qualification journey – balancing academic learning with practical skills assessed through End-Point Assessments (EPAs). Initially, there was a disconnect between the award of academic qualifications and the EPA. This gap affected apprentices’ preparation and, ultimately, their achievement. To address this, we aligned our academic curriculum with EPA standards from the start, emphasising the importance of the EPA in achieving overall apprenticeship success.

Ensuring parity between the academic degree and EPA achievement became a cornerstone of our strategy, as we realised that failing an EPA despite completing a degree qualification undermined the apprenticeship’s integrity and its effect on QAR. We instituted regular formative assessments throughout the apprenticeship journey to prepare apprentices for the EPA, while also offering targeted professional development for staff to ensure curriculum alignment with EPA expectations.

Early Intervention: Preventing Withdrawals and Strengthening Retention

One of the most significant challenges in improving QAR was managing in-year withdrawals, a major determinant of QAR. We implemented strategies to identify and intervene early when apprentices showed signs of disengagement or potential withdrawal. Through regular check-ins with both apprentices and employers, we ensured that support mechanisms were in place before issues escalated. This proactive approach proved to be essential in keeping apprentices on track and preventing withdrawals that would negatively impact the QAR.

Moreover, early Tri-partites were instrumental in identifying potential barriers to success, whether academic, personal, or workplace-related. By addressing these issues early on, we were able to prevent them from growing into problems that would ultimately affect retention rates and QAR outcomes.

Real-Time Data and the Apprenticeship Accountability Framework (AAF)

The real-time data provided by the Apprenticeship Accountability Framework (AAF) dashboard became an indispensable tool in tracking performance across all aspects of our apprenticeship programmes. This tool allowed us to monitor key metrics like retention and achievement rates, offering insights into the effectiveness of our interventions and helping us fine-tune our strategies.

Crucially, the AAF dashboard helped us stay ahead of emerging trends in apprentice performance, enabling us to make informed decisions about where to allocate resources for maximum impact. Regularly reviewing this data in governance and management meetings kept QAR and QRR front and centre in discussions, ensuring a unified approach to driving improvement.

The Impact of Timely Achievement

A key lesson in our journey has been the importance of timely achievement for apprentices. Although apprentices who finish after the reporting period are not technically withdrawals, their movement from one achievement year to the next can significantly impact QAR data. These apprentices “disappear” from the current year’s achievement figures and only reappear once they achieve, distorting the overall performance statistics. This delay in achievement can skew data, particularly when reporting from R10 onwards, making it an essential factor in maintaining a clear and accurate picture of our QAR.

Timely achievement was once a term often discussed during the apprenticeship framework days but somehow fell out of the buzzword carousel in the FE and skills sector. However, we’ve come to realise that the “timely” aspect, particularly in relation to QAR, is crucial. A delayed achievement not only creates challenges in reporting but can also impact the perception of a programme’s success, even if the apprentices eventually complete successfully.

To address this challenge, we focused on setting clear milestones for apprentices early in their journey and maintained consistent monitoring to ensure they stayed on track for timely completion. This proactive approach helped us minimise the risk of apprentices slipping into the next reporting year, where they would be counted as non-achievers until their qualification was completed. We also emphasised the importance of early intervention and support throughout the apprenticeship journey.

Employers played a vital role in this process. By strengthening employer partnerships and ensuring that employers understood their critical role in managing apprentices’ workloads and supporting them in meeting deadlines, we were able to foster an environment conducive to timely achievement. Regular check-ins with employers and apprentices ensured that any issues affecting progress were addressed promptly, keeping apprentices on track to achieve within the designated timeframe.

Conclusion: Ensuring Long-Term Success and Managing In-Year Withdrawals

As we reflect on our journey to improve QAR, it’s clear that effectively managing in-year withdrawals is critical, especially on long programmes. A withdrawal today may not impact achievement rates immediately, but it could have a ripple effect years down the line, like a stone thrown into a pond—it doesn’t seem like much at first, but the ripples can spread far and wide. If we don’t address withdrawals early on, their long-term impact on QAR could surprise you when we least expect it.

We’re now in a strong position, sitting just borderline green on our QAR measure—close, but not quite there yet, by just 0.3%. This means that our efforts are having a significant impact, but we know there’s still more work to do. Our current focus is on preventing withdrawals and managing potential risks before they escalate. By intervening early and providing consistent support to apprentices, we reduce the likelihood of issues escalating further down the line. We’ve learned that “baking in” problems at the start—letting small issues go unchecked—only makes them harder to fix as time goes on. As we continue our focus on QAR, we’ll ensure that any potential obstacles are addressed before they can grow into larger challenges that affect future outcomes.

By Thomas Burton, Head of Apprenticeship Delivery, York St John University