Engineering companies have started training apprentices to degree level under an expansion of the Higher Apprenticeship programme, even before the plans have been rubber-stamped by officials. Hot off the mark, the companies in question are finding new ways to address the problem of skills shortages by growing their own graduates.
The expansion of the Higher Apprenticeship programme was set out in the government’s Plan for Growth in March 2011. This document listed the government’s approach to long-term economic growth. Several months later in July, Prime Minister David Cameron launched a £25 million fund for new Higher Apprenticeship programmes.
At the same time, the Sector Skills Council for Science, Engineering and Manufacturing Technologies (Semta) got industry together to discuss the development of apprenticeships that involve degree-level qualifications. Bill Twigg, apprenticeships director at Semta, explains: “We had a number of employers demonstrate that there was an interest in this. Leadership companies such as BAE Systems, Airbus, Jaguar Land Rover and Ford wanted the ability to home-grow their graduates.”
As a result, representatives from several of the country’s leading engineering firms developed frameworks that could be used to take apprentices right through to degree level. The pathway takes in a foundation degree or HND at level four and five, and a bachelors degree with honours at level six.
The IMechE is working behind the scenes to approve new Higher Apprenticeship schemes so that those who take them can reach incorporated engineer (IEng) and engineering technician (EngTech) status. Ed Hansom, professional development adviser at IMechE, is in discussions with a number of employers about approving or accrediting the vocational and educational components of their respective schemes. Those who complete NVQ level four would be able to register for EngTech and those who complete a degree at level six could attain IEng status.
The frameworks – lists of learning components that must be completed before an apprenticeship can be awarded – are available now. But only the framework for the lower levels of the scheme is formally recognised in the government’s specification of apprenticeship standards. Once the level-six frameworks are approved, it will be the first time that degree-level apprenticeships have been available in the UK. And with further work there is the potential to develop frameworks for programmes equivalent to masters degrees and chartered engineer status.
Up to now companies have sponsored promising apprentices to complete university degrees. But the new scheme allows firms to produce their own graduates with the specific skills required for the business. Twigg says: “We are waiting for a change in the system so that level six can be formally recognised. Some companies are taking their high flyers and putting them on the programme with a view that eventually it will be recognised.” He estimates that there are 400 apprentices being trained to degree level in engineering already.
BAE Systems is one of the companies that is using the scheme – to train nuclear engineers and project managers – before it is formally recognised. BAE Systems’ Barrow site is taking in apprentices to work towards degrees in nuclear engineering. Education director Richard Hamer explains: “The young people have the benefit of earning while they are learning. From our perspective, all their knowledge is rooted in the context of work.
“On completion we have people who are more rounded and capable than if they just did a standard degree programme. There is a deep opportunity to cement their skills.”
Hamer says that in the past the company struggled to get enough people with the right qualifications to work on the submarines programme because nuclear engineering is a specialised degree.
At the company’s Preston site, the first cohort has graduated from a five-year project management course run in partnership with Manchester University and Blackpool and Fylde College. The company had found it hard to find graduates with suitable skills in this field too, says Hamer. Graduates recruited into project management roles need several years of in-house training to get them up to the necessary standard, he says.
Hamer says BAE Systems has always invested in apprenticeships and degree programmes, and now the opportunity has arisen to align these with Higher Apprenticeship frameworks. “I can see us doing more Higher Apprenticeship programmes moving forward,” he says. “A lot of our apprentices go on to do degrees anyway, so why not consolidate the two things into one formal programme from the start?”
Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) has turned to level-six apprenticeships to recruit for specific roles that are difficult to fill. These include cost estimators, distress management roles in the purchasing function, and jobs in product development and manufacturing. Students are recruited on to a six-year scheme direct from school or college and require two A-levels of grade C or above. One A-level must be in a mathematics-based subject and the second in a science, technology or maths-based subject. For the first two years the apprentices complete a foundation degree and learn basic engineering skills with the company. Following this, they spend one day at university studying for a bachelors degree in product development or manufacturing.
JLR is working with Warwick University to create a bespoke course for the degree component of the apprenticeship, ahead of the first cohort of 55 students completing their foundation degrees next year.
JLR’s apprentice manager Ian Eva says that the scheme is a sizeable investment for the firm. The starting salary for apprentices is £16,000 a year which rises to £32,000 after six years, with the company paying all training costs.
Although there are plenty of people out there with the qualifications required, it is difficult to access them, says Eva. He adds: “These are people who have been told all the way through school that they can go on to university, and as a result they are not going to Google and type in key words like apprenticeship.” To overcome this, JLR is talking to sixth-form colleges to promote the scheme. But he says the issues are wider than this.
“People need to recognise what a Higher Apprenticeship is – very technically biased and a rival alternative to university full time. For some reason apprenticeships are not recognised as the golden ticket to early careers,” he says.
Airbus is having similar problems in recruiting people to its undergraduate apprenticeship scheme. The scheme has been under way for two years, and the company hopes to recruit a further 59 apprentices in 2013. The apprentices first complete a foundation degree followed by an NVQ level 4 and then a bachelors degree from the University of the West of England or Glyndwr University. Apprentices are not allocated to a specific area of the company until the end of their second year, after working in all areas of the business including engineering design, quality, systems and programme planning.
Airbus asks entrants to come in with A-levels at B grade or above in maths and physics, but students with these qualifications are proving tricky to find. Gary Griffiths, head of apprentices, says: “We are not getting the numbers we anticipated. We find lots of students with the maths but we are having more challenges to get them with physics.
“Last year, we were looking at the Broughton site for 28 under-graduate apprentices. After the exam results came out we only managed to recruit 14 because they didn’t get the A-levels that we were looking for.” This means that recruitment targets designed to boost the number of females on the programme are not being enforced.
But Griffiths is sure that in years to come the number of applicants will increase. The company is inundated with applications for craft apprenticeships, he says. For the time being, he says that the new pathway will not have an effect on graduate recruitment. He adds: “But there will certainly be a time when we are starting to review the options for certain positions, like whether we need to have a graduate who is going to need additional training, or whether we are going to bring in some of these apprentices that we have grown ourselves.”
In the meantime, Griffiths and his colleagues are lobbying for the specification of apprenticeship standards to be reviewed to include the level-six framework. He is confident that the framework will be formally recognised when the specification comes up for renewal in 12 months’ time.
“We feel like we are pushing on an open door. It’s a no brainer,” he says.