This month saw the publication of both Lord Sainsbury’s Report of the Independent Panel on Technical Education and the accompanying Post-16 Skills Plan. The report and plan will have a significant impact on the awarding sector, and especially on the choice of qualifications available for learners aged 16 and above.
The report states that at 16, learners should be "presented with two choices: the academic or the technical option" in the form of 15 broad occupational routes covering "college-based and employment-based (apprenticeship) education" from Levels 2 to 5.
This will likely lead to greater specialisation towards academic or Technical and Professional Education in individual providers and schools. However, for learners there will be the option of switching between the two routes after completing A Levels or equivalent qualifications.
Just one Awarding Organisation and a limited number of approved new ‘Tech Level’ qualifications will be put in place for each of the 15 routes. This is a move away from the current Awarding Organisation model that provides choice for learners and institutions, and a move away from this model will restrict choice and could stifle innovation.
Within each route, learners can – following a transition year or Traineeship for those "not ready to access a technical education route at age 16" – choose between a two year college-based programme (including compulsory work experience), or an employment-based programme such as an Apprenticeship (including at least 20 per cent college-based provision). Older learners will also be entitled to take these programmes.
Each college programme will include a ‘common core’ of English, maths and digital skills, as well as "specialisation towards a skilled occupation or set of occupations".
After this, the pathways lead on to either Level 4 or 5 higher technical education programmes, degree Apprenticeships or Higher Apprenticeships. There will also be the option in some cases of taking ‘bridging provision’, leading to an undergraduate degree.
The report also announces the expansion and re-naming of the Institute for Apprenticeships, due to be launched in April 2017. New legislation will be needed for it to become the "only body responsible for technical education". It will be called the Institute for Apprenticeships and Technical Education, and have autonomy across its operational brief. It will be responsible for bringing together expert groups to set the content and standards for specific occupations and qualifications within each of the 15 routes.
The foreword from Nick Boles in the accompanying Skills Plan says that the government will "accept and implement all of the Sainsbury panel’s proposals, unequivocally where that is possible within the current budget constraints".
Initial feedback from the Department for Education (DfE) is that these plans have a broad base of support from ministers and across political parties, and are likely to go ahead in one form or another.
We’re working with the DfE to implement the recommendations. With so much ongoing change in the sector, we hope that there will now be some stability so that the changes can be bedded in successfully and communicated clearly to parents, learners and employers.
