standards coinciding with the introduction of the Level 3 EYE
qualification and new GCSE rules. Ross Midgley explains.
Why do apprenticeships matter?
You don't have to be an apprentice to achieve an approved early years qualification while working. With any workplace-based qualification, you will need to demonstrate your knowledge - by studying and completing a series of assignments - and your competence, by having a workplace assessor observe you in action, and through statements from those who know your work.
But 'earning while learning' as an apprentice has two big advantages.
First, it is very suitable for those starting out in the profession or embarking on a new role. This is because, as well as the training that an external training provider gives you, a good employer will contribute supervision, mentoring and on-the-job training.
Secondly, an apprenticeship is the main way of getting Government help to pay for your training.
At the moment, training providers with a Government contract can draw funds from the Skills Funding Agency for every apprentice they train. Providers without a contract have to depend on finding a contract holder prepared to subcontract to them. The funding is paid at a standard rate, which depends on the sector, the apprentice's age and other factors such as location and past experience.
Although apprenticeships are the biggest source of funding for training, there are others. Some Government money is reserved for the unemployed (making it possible for volunteers in a nursery to achieve qualifications) or for those with low educational achievements. Many local authorities have limited budgets for bursaries to help those who can't access funding in any other way. And there are various schemes to incentivise small business to take on apprentices, or encourage people with GCSE maths and English into early years.
But all these other sources of finance are tiny compared with the Government's flagship apprenticeship programme.
Who can be an apprentice?
Apprentices between 16 and 18 years old are the Government's chief priority and generate the biggest training contribution (currently 100 per cent). For adult learners, the Government assumes that the employer will pay half of the cost (in practice this rarely happens, although employers do contribute in other ways, such as providing time and facilities for the training). However, although older learners attract less funding, there is no actual age limit.
Apprentices must be aged 16 or over, properly employed (ideally for at least 30 hours per week, although the minimum is 16 hours) and have the right to live and work in the UK. People with a qualification at Level 4 or above (including university graduates) are not eligible for funding. Apprenticeships are intended for new or changed job roles.
What is changing?
Apprenticeships can be offered at Level 2 (intermediate), Level 3 (advanced) or Level 4/5 (higher). At present the content of an apprenticeship is determined by Sector Skills Councils in the form of a 'framework' document, which sets out a package of qualifications that the apprentice must complete.
The current early years apprenticeship framework includes a sector specific qualification - the Diploma for the Children and Young People's Workforce (CYPW) - as well as personal learning and thinking skills, employment rights and functional skills in maths, English and ICT.
But major changes are afoot. Following the review by Dragons' Den entrepreneur Doug Richard, the Government is moving towards a very different model for apprenticeships, in which both content and funding will change.
The content of apprenticeships is now to be decided by representative groups of employers. Although these employers will be free to specify existing qualifications if they think they are relevant, the main idea is that they should define the skills and competencies they want apprentices in their sector to demonstrate and the method of assessment.
As for funding, rather than the Government paying a standard amount to training providers, employers will negotiate the price of training directly with their chosen provider, make the payments themselves and then recover the Government's contribution (by a method yet to be decided). The Government plans to add £2 to every £1 paid by the employer, up to a maximum that will depend on the apprenticeship. Small employers or those taking on 16- to 18-year-old apprentices will get extra cash to offset their contributions.
Certain sectors have been chosen to pioneer the new approach. Employer groupings known as 'trailblazers' are devising their own apprenticeship standards which - once they have been approved by Government - will replace the existing frameworks.
The early years sector is one of the first trailblazers, although it is in an unusual position compared to the others: whatever else employers might like to see in a Level 3 apprenticeship standard for early years, they cannot escape the fact that it must include a recognised qualification. There is little point in prescribing a set of skills and competencies, only to find that successful apprentices are unable to practise at Level 3 because they don't have a recognised qualification.
Until this is finally agreed, the existing apprenticeship framework is being amended so as to include the new Early Years Educator (EYE) qualifications. It is important to note that nobody who holds, or is working towards, the CYPW diploma will be disadvantaged by the change to EYE: the diploma remains a full and relevant Level 3 qualification.
Maths and English
A major row is currently raging over maths and English qualifications.
The Government quite rightly wants to see better standards of maths and English in the UK workforce, and sees apprenticeships as a key tool for achieving this. Under the existing (pre-trailblazer) framework, all Level 3 apprentices must achieve Level 2 functional skills, or equivalent, in maths and English by the end of their apprenticeship. The Government is planning a gradual replacement of functional skills with what it sees as the 'gold standard' of GCSEs, as the latter are toughened up over the next few years.
There is much debate about the relative merits of GCSEs and functional skills. Many employers argue that a familiarity with 19th-century literature or trigonometric ratios, however desirable, is of limited value for apprentices compared with the ability to write. Functional skills, where maths and English are set in the context of what people actually do, are a much better preparation for work than academic GCSEs.
There is also a debate about the level of maths and English skills that one actually needs to work effectively with children in the early years. Every nursery can point to examples of fantastic, caring practitioners who failed at school but who excel in caring for children. The tabloids, however, can all too easily twist this into stories of "children being taught by people without basic literacy or numeracy" -something which, in an election year, no Government can afford to ignore.
But the Government has decided to single out the early years sector, from all other sectors in the economy, for an accelerated move to academic GCSEs. It has said that adults who want to benefit from public funding for their EYE - which includes loans - must have secured grade C GCSE passes in maths and English before even starting their studies.
Bizarrely, the same rule does not apply to 16- to 18-year-olds doing their EYE at college, who are allowed to study for their GCSEs in parallel.
The 'entry requirement' apparently stems from an opinion expressed by Cathy Nutbrown in her 2012 report that EYE students might be 'distracted' from their studies if they had to study maths and English at the same time. But training providers say that they are skilled at assessing candidates' ability to achieve and that a blanket policy will unfairly exclude large numbers of capable students.
Training providers predict a GCSE entry requirement will lead to a fall in apprenticeship recruitment of up to 80 per cent and lead to nurseries operating with lower proportions of Level 3 qualified staff in the future - the exact opposite of what the Government wants to happen.
They also say that it will disappoint thousands of work-based practitioners completing Level 2 courses this summer in the expectation of progressing to Level 3.
Trouble ahead?
The trailblazer group has decided to respect the views expressed by employers in the consultation, even if this means defying the Government.
The apprenticeship standard submitted to the minister on 19 June said that employers who recruit apprentices without GCSE grade C maths and English must ensure that they have achieved this standard by the end of their apprenticeship.
The Government has made a big commitment to the idea of putting employers in the driving seat. So will it agree to fund an early years apprenticeship that does not include a GCSE entry requirement? Or will it abandon its policy of employer-led apprenticeships as soon as a group of employers comes up with a standard it doesn't like?
CASE STUDY: NIDA ARSHAD
Nida Arshad, 18, is completing a Level 2 CYPW apprenticeship at Holyrood Day Nursery, Astley. She is also studying functional skills in maths, English and ICT. Nida receives excellent feedback from her assessor, employer and the families using the nursery. She expects to achieve her Level 2 in October; her employer wants her to progress to Level 3 and is unable to guarantee her employment beyond the apprenticeship without this.
But the new rules will delay Nida's progress and possibly cost her a job, because she doesn't already have the required GCSE passes in maths and English. Her training provider is ready and willing to teach these subjects as part of the Level 3 framework, but the Government wants her to pass them before she starts.
Liz Truss, the early years minister, has already changed the rules of the EYFS to ensure that nobody achieving an EYE qualification can count as a qualified Level 3 until they achieve GCSE grade C maths and English (with no functional skills alternative). Making GCSEs a condition of starting an EYE course thus seems wholly unnecessary. The minister is aware of Nida's case, and those of thousands like her, but has refused to discuss it.
MORE INFORMATION
Ross Midgley is director of PBD Training, owner of Blois Meadow Day Nursery, and a member of the early years trailblazer group for apprenticeships
'Employers fear apprenticeship rules will force out thousands of early years students',
'Interim framework agreed for apprenticeships before new standards next year',
