With the increase in people seeking apprenticeships as an alternative to an expensive university education, the Industry Skills Board (ISB) working in conjunction with the City & Guilds Group, is now calling for a more coherent apprenticeship application system. The ISB wants to counter the assumption that higher education is the best route to all careers.
In a recently completed report entitled Making Apprenticeships Work the ISB suggested that a system similar to UCAS, which organises university admissions and clearing, should be implemented. The UCAS website lists university courses and manages all stages of the university application process.
A UCAS system would also put apprenticeship recruitment on the same footing as the school calendar and incentivise employers to time their opportunities for July and October, enabling more people to apply for them.
The report recommends a number of actions to improve the process of recruiting people onto apprenticeships and suggests that employers increase the number that they are able to offer. The report also calls on the government, as well as apprenticeship providers, to help those on full and part-time vocational courses to progress onto related apprenticeships to complete their training.
The ISB suggests that the Government encourage collages to embrace classes that start as a full time vocational course, before leading on to apprenticeship training. The report also recommends that more effort be given to helping young people secure employer-based training.
