UCAS could be the key to Unlocking Apprenticeships

Apprenticeship courses have been underappreciated for too long, and we need them to tackle the widening skills gap. To elevate the courses and boost apprenticeship starts, we must roll out a UCAS-style system – a VCAS platform will provide the streamlined, centralised approach we need to defeat the skills shortage.

The Skills England initiative was one of the early bills to be announced by Labour when they won their majority this July (Bloomberg). I’m pleased to see the Government taking the skills gap seriously – after all, businesses of all shapes and sizes are feeling the gap widen – but a task force and redistribution of funding will only go so far. To truly transform our apprenticeship system, we must remove application blockers, streamline the process through one integrated platform, and improve attitudes towards the courses. A UCAS-style system could help us do all three.

The skills gap is tying up productivity in many sectors, and I’ve seen first-hand how it has hampered the construction industry. There’s no doubt in my mind that apprenticeships are the key; they allow businesses to pinpoint the skills they require and provide young people with the hands-on experience they need to climb the ranks into successful careers.

Currently, though, we’re not seeing enough employers take on apprentices, resulting in over £1 billion of the apprenticeship levy being wasted every year (Financial Times). The levy operates under a ‘use it or lose it model,’ so any unspent money, which could be used to deliver the skills transformation our country desperately needs, is returned to the Treasury.

Ultimately, the current system isn’t up to the job. Businesses struggle to find courses that will deliver the exact skills and training that they’re looking for. Trying to navigate the sheer number of training providers is a mammoth undertaking, and there’s every chance that, even if businesses trawl through every one, they’ll end their search even more confused than when they began.

This issue exists for students, too. The government apprenticeships portal is supposed to be a definitive database where all apprenticeship vacancies can be found, but courses splinter off onto countless job boards and employer websites. Students have to battle an overwhelming amount of information and competing job adverts to find a course that will fit them; the truth is that pursuing an apprenticeship has turned into an uphill task and an unappealing prospect for many.

To reinvigorate young people and nudge them towards taking up apprenticeships, we need to drastically rethink how we position them. I firmly believe that taking a leaf out of UCAS’s book and designing a streamlined, one-stop-shop for apprenticeship courses is the best way forward.

A Vocational Courses Admissions Service – or VCAS – would add prestige to these training programmes, placing them on an equal footing with university degrees.

Businesses could find young, driven talent through the all-in-one platform and remove the burden of trawling through providers, navigating the government portal, and advertising the vacancy on countless separate channels. They’d be all the more likely to consider bringing apprentices on board as a result.

And on top of this, we could use VCAS to introduce reporting requirements to ensure that every penny of the apprenticeship funding is put to good use.

For example, employers should have to register a detailed curriculum, information on who will be providing the training, and the long-term career support they are offering the student. For the apprentice, requirements to log attendance and progress towards KPIs would also ensure that all parties stay on track. VCAS would be with employers and students every step of the way to maximise the chances of success.

With a sleek all-in-one apprenticeship platform, the courses might finally be considered in the same league as university degrees. For far too long the vocational route has been seen as a second option, a back-up – this assumption needs to be rooted out if we’re to find the skills we’re missing.

And with a funding shift, we could add even more weight to these historically underappreciated courses. Student Finance is a critical component of the university experience for many students, and while I believe that apprenticeships must remain affordable, I do think government-led loans could help to draw even more young people to the courses.

Employees and apprentices could share the responsibility for loans that help cover the cost of tools, travel, and uniforms, with employers paying 80% and apprentices 20%. And, we should use the apprenticeship levy – including the £1bn that currently goes wasted – to cover training expenses, too. If we offer a year of fully funded apprenticeship schemes, we’ll attract more employers to take up the option.

Crucially, these shifts in the way we roll out funding would bring a greater sense of purpose to the courses, demonstrating that they’re a tool in the national battle against the skills gap crisis.

Starmer is clearly willing to grapple with this issue, and Skills England is undoubtedly a step in the right direction. Still, making the apprenticeship levy slightly more flexible and establishing a task force won’t be enough to trigger the drastic influx of skills our country desperately needs.

We must take inspiration from our university bodies, namely UCAS and Student Finance, and implement some of their winning systems to elevate apprenticeships and boost their uptake.

With VCAS, the comprehensive, polished platform for managing apprenticeship courses end-to-end, as well as a funding revamp, we’ll have the well-oiled machine we need to combat the growing skills deficit.

By Haman Manak, Procurement Director at Stanmore