Apprenticeships and T Levels

A Westminster Hall Debate on Apprenticeships and T levels

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Key messages 

  • The LGA has long campaigned to ensure there is a devolved and joined-up employment and skills system across the country. Our Work Local proposals provide a roadmap to deliver reformed, devolved and integrated employment and skills services in every area through three interlinked offers
  • The national employment and skills system is too centralised, short-term, and standalone. On the ground, this makes it difficult to plan, target and join up provision and leads to gaps and / or duplicated provision. 
  • We need to see reforms which enable a place-based approach which maximises flexibility to pool funds locally to address supply / demand issues, target sectors, widen participation and for non-Levy funding, unspent Levy and traineeships to be commissioned locally.
  • Councils recognise that T Levels are pivotal for addressing skills shortages, to develop a pipeline of skilled young people ready for the workforce. They are committed to ensuring there is a strong local T Level offer and the LGA is supporting the roll out of T Levels across local government.
  • Poor-quality and insufficient Careers Education, Information Advice and Guidance (CEIAG) remains a key barrier to supporting people secure work placements. It is important that CEIAG informs people about the local and national job market, which industries/ sectors are growing, and which skills are in demand to support people into quality jobs.
  • Local government has a recruitment and retention crisis, with significant skills shortages at all levels. Apprenticeships can provide a way to tackle some of these issues by ‘growing our own’.

Overview

As part of their wider role in supporting children and young people, and in shaping their local skills and the employment system, councils have several statutory duties relating to ensuring all young people up to the age of 18 (25 for those with learning difficulties) participate in education or training. These include: 

  • Raising Participation Age – encourage, enable and assist young people to develop a range of skills for adult life and reduce the likelihood of unemployment.
  • September Guarantee – secure a suitable place in education or training, including a vocational offer, for all 16 and 17-year-olds. 
  • Tracking – undertake effective monitoring to fulfil statutory duties for participation and to reduce the number of post-16 unknown destinations for young people.
  • Not in Education, Employment or Training (NEET) – establish the identities of young people failing to participate in education and training. 
  • Risk of NEET Indicators (RONI) – identify those who are not fully engaged in school and therefore may be at risk of becoming NEET at age 16. 

Despite these wide-ranging responsibilities, councils have very few formal levers over the commissioning or co-ordination of provision to ensure statutory duties are met. This makes it extremely challenging for local government to provide place leadership or to build wider support for those with complex or additional needs.

Equally, local government has a recruitment and retention crisis, with significant skills shortages at all levels. Over the last ten years, local government has seen its workforce shrink by around 40 per cent while all other areas of the public sector have grown. 

Apprenticeships can provide a way to tackle some of these issues by ‘growing our own’: upskilling existing staff to fill skills gaps and improve retention; and adding staff development opportunities to our recruitment offer. Indeed 78 per cent of councils say they are looking to increase apprenticeship numbers to tackle their skills needs. Over the last seven years, councils and our maintained schools have worked diligently to create almost 100,000 apprenticeship starts in our sector and fund thousands more with other employers through levy transfers. 

Yet, the reality behind these numbers is stark: apprenticeship starts in local government have flatlined for three years running. Councils have only been able to spend around £485 million of the almost £1 billion they have paid into the levy since 2017. Almost £200 million has been reclaimed by central government after hitting the 24-month expiry point. This funding has been used to pay for apprenticeships in other sectors – effectively a top slice of badly needed local government funds to pay for skills development in a private sector with which local government cannot compete for key skills. The truth is that the apprenticeship levy is too restrictive for councils to get out of it what they need. With the right changes we could do so much more.

Apprenticeships and the apprenticeship levy

The foundation apprenticeships created would provide a new option for pre-apprenticeship training, while new shorter apprenticeships will allow the qualifications to be completed more quickly and offer greater flexibility in taking prior learning into account. Employers will be asked to refocus spending on younger people and there will be restrictions on the use of levy funds for level 7 apprenticeships. 

We need to see reforms which enable a place-based approach which maximises flexibility to collaborate locally to address supply / demand issues, target sectors, widen participation and for non-Levy funding, unspent Levy and traineeships to be commissioned locally. Alongside this, as one of the largest local employers in places, local government has significant workforce challenges and we need flexibility to use the Levy to meet these needs, including to ensure we have planners of the future. We look forward to being engaged by government on this. 

The LGA has consistently called for the flexibility to spend levy funds on pre-apprenticeship training, so the introduction of foundation apprenticeships is positive. However, restrictions on what levy funds can be spent on will cause problems for local government and make it harder for us to tackle our skills challenges, deliver growth and provide vital services.

T Levels

Councils recognise that T Levels are pivotal for addressing skills shortages, to develop a pipeline of skilled young people ready for the workforce. They are committed to ensuring there is a strong local T Level offer and the LGA is supporting the roll out of T Levels across local government through the improvement offer for councils. 

Through their wide-ranging role in the skills system, councils are well-placed to support the T Level rollout by engaging with young people from all backgrounds to improve take-up, build in wrap-around support for learners and support the provision of quality industry placements. Joining up T Levels with other local support will be crucial to re-engage those who are NEET, provide the additional support needed for students with SEND and those from disadvantaged backgrounds, to enable all young people to get the most out of T Levels. 

Councils and combined authorities, working with their local FE sector and employer base, are well placed to take a lead role in planning and promoting the new Post-16 local offer. This would create a coherent local picture with joined-up pathways of progression and built-in wrap-around support for learners.

To ensure the rollout of T Levels is a success, it is crucial that they are effectively promoted to students and their families, through quality CEIAG, as part of the wider Post-16 education offer. Confidence will need to be instilled in the long-term value of these qualifications to boost uptake and ensure the reforms do not inadvertently result in a drop in learner numbers and an increase in NEETs.

Careers education, information, advice and guidance (CEIAG)

Poor-quality and insufficient CEIAG remains a key barrier to supporting people secure work placements. It is important that CEIAG informs people about the local and national job market, which industries/sectors are growing, which skills are in demand, and the range of careers and pathways available.

At present, provision of CEIAG is complex, patchy, and fragmented, with multiple stakeholders delivering initiatives for different age ranges and groups, with no one organisation responsible or accountable for coordinating it with local needs. Nevertheless, many councils are working to ensure an inclusive service for all. For example, Surrey County Council now hosts the Surrey Careers Hub to ensure all stakeholders have access to support and resources. 

Lack of coordinated national approach

The national employment and skills system is too centralised, short-term, and standalone. On the ground, this makes it difficult to plan, target and join up provision and leads to gaps and / or duplicated provision. 

Our analysis (April 2021) reveals that across England, £20 billion is spent on at least 49 nationally contracted or delivered employment and skills related schemes or services managed by 9 Whitehall departments and agencies, multiple providers and over different geographies. No Government strategy sets out how schemes like Levelling Up and Towns Funds, Help to Grow, Restart, Bootcamps, National Careers Service etc should work together. 

This is further complicated by the fact that different Whitehall departments are responsible for different age ranges:

  • Department for Education (DfE) – 16-18 years.
  • Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) – 19-24 years, who are not in education or employment.
  • Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport (DCMS) is responsible for youth services for those aged 13-19 (or up to 25 for those with learning difficulties) and the National Citizen Service for 16-17 year olds.

All of this makes the system complicated. Many councils have established employment and skills board (or similar) to help cohere the system. But without formal levers or a duty to discuss with councils how services will operate in local areas, councils can only at best knit together the patchwork of different initiatives. This also means that there is no single organisation nationally or locally responsible for coordinating these, with no one organisation accountable over how the totality are improving local outcomes.

Devolved skills and employment 

The LGA has long campaigned to ensure there is a devolved and joined-up employment and skills system across the country. Our Work Local proposals provide a roadmap to deliver reformed, devolved and integrated employment and skills services in every area through three interlinked offers: 

  • Youth Pathways to help young people (16 to 24) ‘not in employment, education or training’, or at risk of NEET, find their first job or put them on a career path;
  • Working Futures for adults who are disadvantaged in the labour market, and who need personal support to find work or better work; and
  • Skills for All to provide a better match of skills supply and demand, a skills, and learning offer linked to local careers advice and jobs, and promote lifelong learning. 

We are pleased to see the Government moving in this direction through the announcement of Connect to Work and additional pilots at the Budget. Getting the skills offer right is critical to helping people enter and progress in work and ensuring employers in the public, private and charitable sectors have the workforce they need. Councils know what is needed to build skills pathways and are keen to see this knowledge feed into Skills England once it is formally established. 

We also look forward to engaging on the Get Britain Working (GBW) White Paper which is expected to give more detail on the back to work announcements made in July. These can be put to best effect through a place based approach which we have set out through our most recent Work Local proposals.

Contact: Archie Ratcliffe,
Public Affairs and Campaigns Advisor 
Mobile: 07867 189177 | Phone: 020 3838 4868 
Email: [email protected]