Are we taking full advantage of apprenticeships as an effective way to upskill current staff? Emma Plane explores how apprenticeships can be a powerful tool for staff development
Most people would agree that employing apprentices as part of the workforce is as important to society as it is valuable to the organisation. Some of the benefits include addressing skills gaps, developing a more diverse workforce and developing future talent pipelines. They also give staff the opportunity to develop their own supervision and mentoring skills. However, the resource that it can take to employ an apprentice is sometimes a deterrent.
The Challenge of Unused Levy Funds
Even though they are employing a number of apprentices, few education establishments are managing to spend their full levy, with millions being returned to the treasury in unspent funds. The industry has worked hard to create a vast range of apprenticeships which are bespoke to education and can add value to our teams. So, it now offers us an amazing opportunity to develop current staff, without paying a course fee.
Tailored Apprenticeships for the Education Sector
There is a suitable apprenticeship standard for most roles within the education sector. With many now available as remote delivery, they are more flexible than they were in the past and therefore more accessible for our staff. With enough staff to train, it is often possible for apprenticeship providers to deliver to bespoke cohorts of staff, meaning that they benefit from completing the course with colleagues.
The introduction of the Level 5 Specialist Teaching Assistant (with specialism in SEND, Curriculum or Wellbeing) this academic year has provided an exciting new career development opportunity for experienced Teaching Assistants who want to develop further but don’t want to become a qualified teacher. This upskilling of staff can only result in better education for our children and young people.
Apprenticeships are free professional development, so why are we still losing millions of apprenticeship levy across the sector? Many school leaders will hear that apprentices are required to spend 20% of their time completing ‘off the job’ training and will be filled with fear. They can’t possibly spare that employee for 20% of their working week. However, when you get under the skin of what this actually means, it’s not as bad as the headline suggests.
Rethinking Off-the-Job Training
Off-the-job training must be learning that is not part of the employee’s day-to-day job role and can include:
- Reading and research, including podcasts and videos
- Work shadowing
- Specific training courses
- Time spent writing assignments
- Mentoring
Whilst this learning must be directly relevant to the apprenticeship standard and new learning for the individual, with a bit of creative thinking it is much more possible than you might first imagine. So, it’s time we stopped thinking about what time we’ll need to spare and focus on what we’ll gain.
Working at retaining our workforce is more important than ever. Apprenticeships offer us the ability to commit to, and invest time in, their development. If you haven’t already, why not explore what apprenticeships could do for your team?
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