Acting chief executive Liz Bromley has been featured in Times Higher Education’s coverage of new funding restrictions for degree apprenticeships.
The employer-led Institute for Apprenticeships, which is sponsored by the Department for Education, extended its mandatory qualifications policy to degree apprenticeships with updated guidance. This states that for an apprenticeship to offer a degree qualification, it should now be mandated by a related profession in one of three ways: with proof that it is a regulatory requirement; that is a requirement by a professional body; or that it is such a must-have in the labour market that an apprentice would be disadvantaged in job applications without it.
If these thresholds are not met, employers or universities could still develop a degree apprenticeship course, but they would not be able to use funds from the apprenticeship levy to pay for the registration and certification of the end qualification.
In the THE story, Liz said that the move “from degree apprenticeships towards ‘degree-level apprenticeships’ and the new restrictions on awards are a cause for genuine concern.
“For apprentices themselves, a degree award is vital in giving greater resilience to future changes in the labour market,” she said. But the new guidelines “risk disadvantaging new and emerging sectors” that might not yet have the professional bodies to be able to mandate degrees.
