By working together apprenticeships and technical education can play a central role in the economic recovery from COVID-19
Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (@IfATechEd): Annual report and accounts 2019 to 2020
It is a pleasure to introduce the third Annual Report and Accounts for the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (the Institute) and my first as chief executive. The challenge of COVID-19 is of course one which looms large and will impact everything we do for the foreseeable future. At the Institute, we are committed to continuing the delivery of high-quality apprenticeships both now and in the future, while putting everyone’s health and wellbeing first.
We have put over 100 different flexibilities and discretions in place to keep end point assessment going, so that apprentices can take their end point assessments remotely and complete their apprenticeships as previously planned. We have also adapted our processes for the development and approval of apprenticeship standards, at the time of writing 77 new submissions from employers have been approved, with remote meetings of our employer trailblazers and route panels taking place.
Over the coming year we will continue to reach out and listen to the sector, so that we can make transparent, evidence-based decisions and lead through this crisis. While COVID-19 represents a significant threat to the progress made on apprenticeship and technical education reform, we have the advantage of coming from a position of strength. More than half-a-million people have now started on new higher-quality apprenticeships at all levels since the reforms launched in 2014.
Starts on the new higher-quality apprenticeships have risen by 22% in the last year and more than doubled since 2017-18. We know that employers, education and training providers, apprentices and everyone across the sector have worked hard to develop higher-quality apprenticeships and better technical education.
The Institute has played an important role since our inception in April 2017, last year delivering the 500th new higher-quality apprenticeship standard. These apprenticeships are in a whole range of different areas and we have worked with thousands of employers to develop new and exciting opportunities.
T Levels are a source of pride and optimism
We have approved the first three T Levels in time for first teaching in September 2020, bringing new rigour and credibility to technical education in this country. T Levels will start to reshape the technical education offer and provide better skills and opportunities to young people – skills which businesses want and need.
We have also taken the first steps to extend employer endorsement to other technical qualifications, which we anticipate will grow in 2021. By working closely with employers and apprentices we have built a knowledge of what they need from the system. This understanding will be crucial over the coming year as we tackle the impacts of COVID-19.
The Institute wants to be at the very heart of the delivery of high quality, cost effective apprenticeship standards and technical education so that every employer and student gets the skills they need to succeed. We need to be both realistic and positive.
It will be difficult and there will be setbacks, just as there will across the wider economy and across the world. This is a new reality and one we are all learning to cope with and respond to it in the best way we possibly can. We know that to meet the challenges ahead, of which there may be many, we will need to become increasingly flexible in our approach, more agile in the our ways of working and more rapid in our response.
However, by us all working together, within the Institute and collaboratively with our partners, we believe that apprenticeships and technical education can play a central role in the economic recovery from COVID-19.
Jennifer Coupland, chief executive of the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education
Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education: annual report and accounts 2019 to 2020
Ref: ISBN 978-1-5286-1937-0, CCS 0520607514, HC 4232019-20PDF, 10MB, 91 pages
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