Apprenticeships - Managing the talent pipeline: the impact of the paradigm shift in developing workforce skills and the role technology plays

Transcription

1 Apprenticeships - Managing the talent pipeline: the impact of the paradigm shift in developing workforce skills and the role technology plays by Barry Brooks In terms of developing the current and future skills of the workforce, whether the focus is on the flow of new talent into the workplace or the stock of established employees, the current answer now always appears to be, let employers take the lead. Whilst many employers are prepared to embrace this new-found influence and the opportunities it gives them, there has been little attempt by the Coalition Government to streamline the skills system to make it more accessible to or its demands more transparent for employers to understand. If this policy imperative is to be successful and sustainable employers, large and small, need advice and support on how to manage these new responsibilities and at the same time work-place learning providers need to explore new ways of collaborating with employers. This paper looks at the impact on, and opportunities for, employers, employees and independent learning providers as these workforce policies and practices gain increasing momentum and traction. It also identifies approaches and technologies that will enable employers to build new or refresh existing relationships to create a skills system that matches the rhythms and routines of the workplace. 1

2 Introduction The Government s diverse range of new reforms designed to refresh and revitalise the skills system, this crucial aspect of public policy and practice, include investment in Traineeships and the ambitious programme to restructure Apprenticeships; at the heart of all of these reforms is employer leadership and ownership of the skills agenda. The prevailing view now is that employers know best how to train their workforce and develop the skills needed for industry and commerce and they must be given the responsibility for leading and managing this at each and every stage of the process including the development of standards and qualifications, the delivery of education and training and the assessment of competence and skills. The paradigm shift timeline 2012 Message first raised by Jason Holt s Report, Making Apprenticeships More Accessible to SMEs... Honed and shaped by Doug Richard s Review of Apprenticeship... Through the Trailblazers employers have been given a central role in enacting the recommendations of the Richard Review and redefining apprenticeships. Employer partnerships are collaborating and cooperating and focusing on where they can add most value to the skills system and as a direct result strengthen the brand and raise the status of the apprentice as a vehicle for workplace training. A priority for the Trailblazers has been to create new apprenticeship standards and approaches to training and assessment that employers recognise as being tried, tested and trusted. This first wave of Trailblazers targeted at partnerships drawn from the Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics (STEM) sectors: Aerospace; Automotive; Digital Industries; Electrotechnical; Energy and Utilities; Financial Services; Food and Drink; Manufacturing and Life Sciences & Industrial Sciences. Wave One has been swiftly followed be two further waves of employer-led partnerships each of which are enthusiastically embracing the opportunities that this commitment from supply-driven to demand-led training has created. Even at this relatively early stage it is clear that a demand-led system, no matter how enthusiastically welcomed, cannot afford to ignore the importance of accurate learner records, appropriate, timely data management and reliable and rigorous quality assurance processes and procedures Consolidated by Nigel Whitehead s Review of Vocational Qualifications. The role of technology Such was the clarity, coherence and timeliness of these collective recommendations that they were readily embraced by the Government and swiftly moved from policy thinking into development and practice. In the vanguard of these reforms are the Apprenticeship Trailblazers. Unsurprisingly the role of technology has been critical in the administration of successful programme delivery and the leading providers of technology into the learning and skills sector are those that are able to innovate at the same pace as the sector evolves, thereby becoming enablers of the reforms and partners of those committed to successful delivery. Here we pick out 6 areas where technology is particularly impacting successful vocational providers operations. 2

3 What does Employer leadership look like? Employers in the Apprenticeship Trailblazers are taking responsibility for the whole process of apprenticeship training from beginning to end. This does not mean that they have to do it all themselves, unless they wish to, but it does mean that they have the opportunity to design, develop, implement and quality assure apprenticeship frameworks and associated qualifications that are appropriate for, and relevant to, their industry or sector. Central to this process is authentic employer collaboration and cooperation competitors are expected to design an apprenticeship that is occupation-specific rather than employer-specific and target competence and skills at Level 3 rather than Level 2. The underlying intention here is to create a talent pipeline for an industry or a sector and not just for a qualification for a job with a specific employer. Trailblazers have acted as a catalyst for these reforms and employers have welcomed the invitation to take the lead and new high level apprenticeship standards for sector-wide occupations have been and continue to be developed for occupations as diverse as Power Engineering and Green Keeping. These new standards eliminate the traditional opaqueness of many current National Occupational Standards and clearly define and describe what an apprentice needs to know, understand and be able to do. Each Standard is now aligned with approaches to assessment that in their design and application owe much more to custom and practice in the workplace than that of the examinations that are delivered by schools and colleges. In reality these developments around language, processes and procedures probably represent some of the most simple and straightforward reforms, yet the most far-reaching and fundamental in terms of reflecting established workplace practices. Employers are now prepared to replace the academic taxonomy associated with general qualifications with terms and vocabulary from the workplace that they are familiar with and recognise. 1. Contextualised programmes and learning communities Contextualising work-based learning is proven to increase learner engagement whilst naturally giving greater relevance to the qualification or standard earned. In any instance, delivering bespoke elements of training is time consuming and often administration-heavy, especially around the assessment side. To minimise the cost and time implications of such approaches, employers are looking to integrated systems that are able to host contextualised online learning resources in specific learning communities and then track employees interaction with those materials. In this way managers or assessors are able to use existing in-house materials, monitor and report out on the live progress of individual learners against plan as they complete elements of their learning, from induction to full qualifications, and make timely interventions where necessary. Employees also benefit from seeing their own progress and having direct connections to relevant members of staff as well as other learners in their community that also provides an outlet for self-directed learning. By enlisting the help of course design and accreditation service providers, the tracking of learners progression can be made even more efficient and the learner experience enhanced, making use, for example, of sequenced content so employees only gain access to content applicable to their progress through the plan. 3

4 Employers now openly talk about trade tests or professional examinations rather than summative or synoptic assessment, they will discuss making judgements on competence and skills rather than assessing them against atomised, individual performance criteria and perhaps most innovative of all, some employers are addressing the controversial issue of grading candidate performance by deploying workplace selection processes where interviews and supervisor recommendations are used to determine and rank the levels of authorisation given to those competent individuals with the most appropriate attitudes and behaviours. Whilst employers and their partners are being trusted with their ability to make authentic, reliable and valid decisions they will not be able to ignore issues of accountability especially where public funding is involved and some form of reliable record-keeping and quality assurance will still be necessary. 2. Record keeping Tracking the learner journey has become paramount not only for funding draw-down purposes, but also in achieving continuous improvement in programme delivery. However, it is far from easy to track and manage all the data connected to programmes, regardless of their size. Successful implementations of Learner Management systems will display the flexibility to: Integrate with employers existing systems and processes to build a full picture of each learner and remove duplication of data management tasks. Accommodate user-definable fields so employers can record any data they wish to against employees/learners. Include in-built validation rules so the right data is there from the beginning and employers are alerted to exceptions ensuring data validity and audit security Where applicable, make it easy to see what funding is due and when, whilst managing discrepancies before they accumulate, using functionality such as inbuilt financial profiling. Provide robust evidence of learner progression. Any details not able to be automatically recorded, tracked and reported on ultimately impact upon administrative teams and managers, so configuration to suit the employer s business is as essential as a flexible system. 4

5 Some employer-led Apprenticeship Trailblazers have begun to move beyond the basic principles set out by the Government and introduce creative and innovative solutions as they develop a high quality talent pipeline. One such innovation includes the actual awarding of certificates of competence and aligning these with professional registration. This approach gives priority to the recognition of capability and sustained employment rather than merely seeking a paper qualification from an established awarding organisation. In his review Richard opened the way for this to happen when he described what an independent assessment service might look like. Many industries including Financial Services and the Energy and Utilities sector already have rigorous and robust processes and procedures that require the competence and skills of their employees to be regularly assessed and updated and they are looking for greater alignment between these schemes and apprenticeship assessments. These developments are especially relevant when both employers and Government are seeking to eliminate unnecessary bureaucracy, streamline processes and procedures and secure more valuable outcomes from their finite resources whilst at the same time raising the quality of employee experience, competence and skills. It is clear from all of the developments to date employers will need to collect and retain credible evidence for each apprentice and ensure that it is rigorous and robust. Of course not all employers, industries and sectors are as advanced or sophisticated as those referenced above and it would be a mistake to believe that all employer leadership of apprenticeships can or will look and feel the same in all contexts and settings. The most important outcome of these developments is that the role of the main stakeholders has changed. Employers have the opportunity to decide how they want their workforce to be trained and, where they require partners, they are being encouraged to negotiate as hard with providers of training services as they would with sub-contractors for their core business. 3. Providing credible evidence Providing credible evidence can often be an onerous and time consuming task for an employer, and in many instances taking managers away from their day-to-day tasks. Therefore establishing a process whereby evidence is collected and recorded in a sustainable, resource-light manner is invaluable to organisations committed to robust training but also wishing to maintain an element of business as usual. Any established Learner Management Systems should be capable of receiving evidence from employees in a manner of formats, such as (online forms, written submissions, video evidence, workplace assessments etc) and evidence automatically made available to relevant managers and assessors. Taking the model further, and to increase efficiency of those assessing evidence, the system should enable them to accept, reject or comment on supplied evidence so employees receive timely feedback and/or interventions from managers. Customisable objective tracking should also allow the tracking of anything from pre-determined qualification to company standards. Underpinning this should be a Quality Assurance process. 5

6 English and Mathematics No reform is complete without a consideration on how best to improve the English and mathematics skills of individuals and the raft of reforms around workforce skills has an important role to play. Too many young people continue to enter the labour market with inadequate skills in these core subjects and everyone recognises that this continues to act as a barrier to employment in the short term and career progression in the longer term. The GCSE A*-C is seen and the Gold Standard by some but Functional Skills are recognised by many employers as providing a strong basis for effective and efficient workforce skills. Some employers address these expectation and requirements by using these qualifications as a means of selecting appropriate employees. Those applicants without English and mathematics fall at the first hurdle. However, going forward employers and their partners are expected to play a central role in helping those young people who have failed to see the importance of English and mathematics in school recognise their centrality to a workplace setting. 4. Making best use of Functional Skills as a gold standard qualification It is widely accepted that Functional Skills platforms and resources endorsed or approved by national awarding organisations provide employers with an equivalent gold standard for the core subjects in workplace learning. Platforms with in-built assessment and diagnostics in one process remove unnecessary administration of separate testing, but also give employers the ability to run initial assessments with employees so they can be confident they have the initial competence to embark upon their training, or alternatively direct them to a more appropriate level of course. Adaptive technologies further remove the administration resource required by automatically generating personal, adaptive learning plans. The more sophisticated platforms will also do more for the candidate than simply ticking a box they should take them beyond exam ready so their applied skills are of more value to the business on successful completion of the final assessment. There is an important role here for partnership between an employer and a training provider where the former can bring clarity to the importance of these skills and the latter facilitates the teaching, learning and assessment. 6

7 Where will the money come from? The most uncertain dimension of all of these reforms is the planned changes to the flow of funding. Ministers and officials have already made it clear that they intend to channel the funding for apprenticeships directly to employers. Whilst some employers have welcomed this approach it has created concern among smaller employers who are concerned about cash flow and how best to manage any new bureaucracy. To date several approaches to channelling funding have been considered, consulted on and stalled, including PAYE as the initial forerunner, followed by a credit account where both Government and employer paid directly into the fund, and now, following recent Ministerial changes the Government has once more gone back to the drawing board. Whatever model emerges though there is no doubt that in the future funding for apprenticeships will be channelled through employers and there will be a clear need for audit evidence and clear and transparent accounting of how the public purse is being invested. 5. Managing the funding returns process Drawing down funding is rarely the drive for employers to undertake apprenticeship and traineeship programmes, and the bureaucracy involved often leads to inefficiencies in the employer operations and a disruption to business as usual. For example, the administrative impact of inaccuracies in funding returns is a very real cost, but one which is very avoidable with the use of validation at source technology. In this manner, employers should come to expect 100% accuracy of their returns. Automating funding returns is another way in which employers can minimise the impact on their administrative resources and retain a business as usual approach. 7

8 A wider landscape of skills reforms Apprenticeships reforms are the most high profile of the Government s reforms of the skills system but they are only a part of a much wider transition designed to move the responsibility for setting the agenda for workforce skills from the education and training sector to employers. This new agenda expects employers to build a new relationship with schools and colleges by participating in careers, advice and guidance and to build bridges form education into work through providing more and better quality opportunities for work experience. The new study programmes for all post-16 students require an element of work experience and Traineeships require up to six weeks work experience. Each approach is designed to better prepare young people for the world of work, not so much by developing the vocational skills, but more the appropriate attitudes and behaviours expected of employees such as communicating appropriately, good time keeping and working collaboratively. 6. A singular view of learners activities Where a non-training/qualification activity such as work experience needs to be reported on, rather than treat this in isolation outside of the Management System, employers should look to their technology providers to provide them with the means to design specific fields to track and evidence those elements of the activity so all learner/employee information is retained in one place and can be reported out on, giving a singular view of each learner. Changes are also being explored at the employer end too. Through the Employer Ownership Fund and the Employer Ownership of Workforce Skills Pilots Government is pursuing a similar approach to Apprenticeship Trailblazers and encouraging employers to work together to improve workforce skills, not just for their own immediate purposes but for the long term and for the benefit of all employers in their industry or sector irrespective of size. This approach has seen the creation of Industrial Partnerships where employers are looking to address the issues of recruitment, talent management and retention and workforce development.

9 The challenge going forward No-one in Government underestimates the scale of the challenge that these reforms are setting to stakeholders but the greatest risk to the country s economic prosperity is to do nothing and continue to prop-up a system that works for no-one. Ministers and employers alike now recognise that this is not about more money it is about creating a system where the levels of resource available work more efficiently creating a system that is more productive. This is what employers do best and why their leadership and ownership is crucial going forward. In seeking a C21st solution for these new relationships and responsibilities employers must look at audit requirements, matching education and training demands to the rhythm and routines of the workplace, monitoring, measuring and streamlining workflows and the timely availability of data and information. All of these dimensions have already been addressed by forward thinking employers by adopting and adapting digital solutions to make their businesses more productive and successful. By bringing the same attention to detail and clarity of thought to workforce development, digital solutions and systems will ensure that skills development is appropriately aligned with and melded into a business as usual set of solutions. About the author Barry Brooks has over thirty years experience in the education and skills sector ranging from frontline delivery and management through curriculum and qualification development, quality assurance and regulation to national policy and strategic formulation. As Tribal s Strategic Adviser and a member of Tribal s Senior Leadership Team Barry is currently responsible for providing Tribal with strategic advice and guidance on how best to deliver all elements associated with education and skills. In his previous role as Tribal s Director of Lifelong Learning he focused primarily on the national and international aspects of employment, social justice and workforce development. About Tribal Tribal is a leading provider of solutions to the international education, training and learning markets. We deliver efficiencies in training administration and improved outcomes for learners through our systems designed to track the entire learner journey whilst integrating with awarding bodies, web-based systems, HR and finance solutions. Working as one, we focus on helping our customers to deliver excellence. Our extensive expertise and collaborative style has made us a trusted partner to our customers. We have 1,300 staff and our work spans five continents.

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