Roundtable: Foundation apprenticeships in England

At the end of last year, during Labour’s conference in Liverpool, Keir Starmer announced that his government would focus on opening up more opportunities for young people. As part of this he announced ‘foundation apprenticeships, a new route for young people to develop vital workplace skills. The government has said that they want foundation apprenticeships to give young people a route into critical sectors while they earn, helping them to develop valuable skills. Here at EngineeringUK, we welcome the idea of an introductory pathway which helps a diverse range of young people to get started in engineering and technology and have started to look at foundation apprenticeships in England and what they could and should look to achieve.

In our report Fit for the Future, led by Lord Knight and Lord Willetts, we analysed the decline in engineering and technology apprenticeships. We called for the government to expand and re-examine pre-apprenticeships for young people aged 16 to 18.

The government is looking to launch foundation apprenticeships this summer but has not yet announced exactly how foundation apprenticeships should work, and is still, as we understand it, developing the policy. So, in March, EngineeringUK convened a roundtable for employers in the energy, transport, defence and advanced manufacturing sectors to share their views with the Department for Education (DfE) and the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education (IfATE) about whether and how foundation apprenticeships might work in the engineering sector.

There was a lot of support at the event for the core principle of connecting a diverse range of young people into career pathways in critical sectors.

We also heard from participants, though, that there is still a lot to consider if foundation apprenticeships are to work in engineering. That includes some fundamental questions.

• Is a new scheme just initiative-itis? What will foundation apprenticeships add to existing employability and skills programmes? Will they add new jobs, not just come at the expense of others?
• How much can the government expect employers to take on? Other schemes, like T Levels, have come up against the reality that employers – especially smaller organisations – have limited capacity to provide placements and entry-level employed positions.
• How would the growth and skills levy be designed to support foundation apprenticeships? Managing entry-level recruits needs skill and time. Could support for managers be funded through the levy?

There are wider practicalities to think about, too, such as what assessment would look like, and whether there is teaching and assessment capacity for a new qualification.

It was heartening, though, to see many employers looking hard at what they can do to help young people establish themselves in engineering.

• Roundtable participants were concerned about the gender imbalance in engineering. There was eagerness to look at how foundation apprenticeships can support change in this area, which we at EngineeringUK share.
• There was conversation about how to work more collectively to support young people across the engineering sector – and perhaps with other sectors too, where there are common skills.
• Currently many engineering qualifications at level 2 are highly specialised. If designed in the right way, foundation apprenticeships might suit young people still exploring their options.

The roundtable was a great starting point and has helped us at EngineeringUK, as well as hopefully government, to better understand how foundation apprenticeships may fit into the wider engineering & technology skills landscape. There is, however, much more to unpack, and we look forward to doing so. Is there more we can learn from similar initiatives elsewhere, or from previous programmes? What does the data show us?

We’d love to hear from anyone with thoughts and evidence on this subject. As we continue our work, we’re planning to talk to representatives of smaller employers, providers, awarding bodies and representatives of young people’s interests. Please email us on [email protected] if you’d like to discuss this with us.

We’d like to thank DfE and IfATE for attending the roundtable to hear employers’ views, and our corporate members for contributing their thoughts: Babcock International, Drax, E.ON, EDF Energy, Leonardo, National Grid, National Highways, Network Rail, Nuclear Waste Services, Rolls-Royce SMR, RWE, Siemens, Thales and Transport for London.